This just angers me more than anything.
Lisa Brown is a Michigan State Representative from West Bloomfield. She has been officially banned from speaking on the House Floor, which is her job, due to her “unprofessional conduct.” Now what unprofessional conduct has she committed? She said the word “vagina” while talking about an abortion bill.
OK, the media is giving her a bit too much credit–the headlines make it seems as though Brown used the word in a professional way and that the men in the House found it icky and gross. The context of her oration was “and finally, Mr Speaker, I’m flattered that you’re all so interested in my vagina, but ‘no’ means ‘no.'”
This is a very unprofessional statement to make, and absolutely was intended to provoke an emotional response. But does she deserve to be banned from speaking on the floor of the House for an unlimited period of time? Absolutely not. It seems as though women are being banned from the discussion on abortion just because they are making impassioned or seemingly rude comments. Representative Barb Byrum was also banned from the discussion yesterday. “There were actions by Representative Byrum on the floor involving shouting in the chamber that also failed to maintain decorum,” House Speaker spokesman Ari Adler told CBS. She believes it’s because she used the word and brought up the idea of vasectomy.
This side-show is taking away from the fact that the State of Michigan wants to enact into law a bill that will make it illegal for a woman to have an abortion after 20 weeks without consideration for the life of the mother. My political beliefs here aren’t important, voters are being silenced due to “decorum” and that isn’t right or fair, and the news media is spending more time paying attention to this than the actual abortion bill. Let’s realize why Lisa Brown said “vagina,” and not that she was banned for saying it.
