One year ago today, State Rep. Lisa Brown said “vagina.”
She was banned from speaking on the House floor for using the anatomically correct word while standing up against another far-right attack on women’s health.
That word started a landslide of support for a woman’s right to choose, and thousands came out to support women’s health on the capitol lawn with advocate Eve Ensler. But politicians still aren’t listening.
A year later, and Republican politicians are still trying to get between women and their doctors:
1. Rep. Joel Johnson introduced legislation forcing women seeking an abortion to undergo an invasive vaginal ultrasound, saying he wants to make sure women are “mentally capable” of making decisions.
2. Michigan passed some of the most restrictive and unnecessary building code requirements for women’s health clinics, forcing them to meet standards required only in surgical centers.
3. Just yesterday, while discussing a bill that would ban all abortions nationally after 20 weeks without exceptions for rape, incest, or the health of the mother, Congressman Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) said “the incidence of rape resulting in pregnancy are very low.”
4. Right to Life is spearheading an attempt to prevent women from having abortions, even in cases of rape or incest. The very name of their ballot committee is based on a lie. Anti-choice extremists have named their ballot committee “No Taxes for Abortion Insurance,” but tax money paying for abortions is already banned several times in federal law. They want to force women to buy rape insurance because,- as they reasoned – rape is a lot like a “car accident or flood.” Two different Republican governors have already vetoed this legislation.
But rape is NOT an accident.
It’s clear that Republican politicians don’t respect women. It’s time to stand up to these extreme politicians, and tell them to keep politics out of the doctor’s office.