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Vaginas Take Back the Capitol! Monday June 18th 5:00pm until 8:00 pm

Michigan Caitol Building - 100 Capitol Ave (btw. West Allegan & West Ottawa), Lansing, Michigan

Facebook Public Event until June 30 at 12:00 am PDT: Vagina isn’t a dirty word

Would you like to show your support for the word vagina in particular, and women’s rights in general? Mail a card with just the word VAGINA on it to: Jase Bolger Speaker of the House PO Box 30014 Lansing, MI 48909-7514 ********

(CNN) - Two state representatives in Michigan were barred from speaking on the floor of the legislature in Lansing Thursday after colleagues deemed their language “failed to maintain the decorum” of the legislative body.

State Reps. State Reps. Lisa Brown and Barb Byrum, both Democrats, were arguing against proposed legislation that would enact new restrictions on abortions in Michigan, including provisions for new insurance requirements for abortion providers.

Brown ended her floor speech by declaring: “”I’m flattered that you are all so interested in my vagina, but no means no.”

Byrum chimed in, announcing the word “vasectomy” after Brown’s speech, an apparent reference to proposed Democratic legislation that would counter the new abortion rules by placing similar restrictions on vasectomies.

A spokesman for the Republican Speaker of the House told the Detroit Free Press the two women would not be allowed to speak on the floor after their remarks.

They “will not be recognized to speak on the House floor today after being gaveled down for their comments and actions yesterday that failed to maintain the decorum of the House of Representatives,” the spokesman said.

French Roast News

Anne is reading …

Eve Ensler’s play ‘The Vagina Monologues’ is considered to be a manifesto for women’s rights. The world is revving up behind two Democratic women members of Michigan’s state House of Representatives, after the Republican War on Women banned them for saying ‘naughty’ words on the House floor.

AOC reported the story yesterday, with Orthodox Jewish woman Lisa Brown’s speech against Michigan’s passed in House anti-abortion law, one that de facto also puts Planned Parenthood out of business in the state.

The story has gone viral, and now at least nine female legislators will join actresses from around Michigan on Monday evening to read the 1996 play “The Vagina Monologues”, reports the Detroit Free Press.

Protest organizer Carla Milarch, who is associate artistic director of the Performance Network Theatre in Ann Arbor, announced that playwright Eve Ensler is flying in for the event from California. “Staging the play seemed like the perfect response to conservative men silencing women for speaking in direct terms about body parts — specifically for saying the word vagina, she said.”

Also planning to read Monday are Rep. Barb Byrum, D-Onondaga, who also was banned from making further speeches because she intended to introduce a bill putting restrictions on vascetomies; Rep. Stacy Erwin Oakes, D-Saginaw; Rep. Dian Slavens, D-Canton; Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit; Rep. Vicki Barnett, D-Farmington Hills; Rep. Joan Bauer, D-Lansing, and Sen. Gretchen Whitmer, D-East Lansing.

“No one is throwing these words around (in the Legislature) without a rational context. If these men can’t handle the debate about women’s bodies, they shouldn’t be taking away our rights” to abortion access, Whitmer said.

Sen. Rebekah Warren, D-Ann Arbor, said she will read from the play ” because preserving freedom of speech is essential in any legislative body.

Lisa Brown Silenced by Bolger

Michigan Rep Lisa Brown (D) is banned indefinitely from speaking by Michigan House Speaker Jase Bolger (R)Ari Adler, press secretary for Michigan House Speaker Jase Bolger (R) told TPM that her punishment had nothing to do with her use of the word ‘vagina’.

“The Speaker Protempore at the time was John Walsh. It was his judgment at the time that when she finished her statement by referencing her vagina, and then saying ‘no means no,’ that was drawing in a rape reference, and he felt that crossed the line.”

Michigan Liberal posts an email from Adler that goes further:

“All day today, we have had representatives of both parties, both genders and several different religions passionately debating important issues that will significantly impact the future of Michigan. I would urge you not to become too distracted by temper tantrums designed to score political points.”

Brown was explaining that the package of abortion bills — one including the “let women die” rule, would violate her Jewish religious beliefs which says that abortions must be allowed to save the life of the mother.

Related Reading: Michigan’s Attack on Women’s Rights New York Times

FDA Revises Scientific Language Around Morning-After Pill

In a speed not known to the federal government, the Food & Drug Administration updated its definition of how the morning after pill works, after a recent in-depth article by the New York Times.

In its recent report on the morning-after pill, the Times said the FDA had decided during the drug-approval process to say the pill can prevent eggs from implanting despite “lack of scientific proof” and “objections by the manufacturer of Plan B, the pill on the market the longest.” According to the Times, leading scientists say studies “provide strong evidence that Plan B does not prevent implantation and no proof that a newer type of pill, Ella, does.”

The change isn’t likely to have significant short-term change in the abortion debate, where anti-abortion advocates have little interest in hearing the scientific facts about women’s reproductive health.