It was an interesting episode. Well executed, but it reminded me a lot of the typically MacFarlane's jokes.

Comparing a female to a birth defect like a 'cleft palate', and sex reassignment simply as a correction, is permitted because Bortus is an alien. And well it's "The Orville", so everything goes.

But let us never forget that the Moclans are a totally male dominated alien species who have succesfully eradicated the existence of females in their society, including probably altering their history. Their success is so all-encompassing that everyone believes and accepts that any female born is a birth defect, an anomaly, that should be corrected.

It's all crap of course, to start with there's not - and never could be - such a thing as an "all male species" because if there's no need for two (or more) genders for reproduction then they're just asexual. And if there's a requirement for both (or more) genders for reproduction then by eliminating all of one the species would go extinct.

It's just a story-telling device, and not a very good one. It's about as obvious as Loki and Bele.