The War on Women is alive and well in Wisconsin. This was quite evident Wednesday, when Senate President Mike Ellis took to erratically yelling/screaming his words, banging his gavel, and silencing anyone that might get in the way of passing a bill which forces women seeking abortions to be ‘educated’ by way of an invasive vaginal ultrasound.
The anti-choice bill was not surprising. As a woman, nothing surprises me these days. It’s one of 600 or so bills, that have been introduced by GOP lawmakers this year. It’s hard to keep count. One has to wonder how much of our tax money is blatantly wasted introducing such bills (many of them unconstitutional), as well as paying the salaries of political misogynist whack-jobs like Ellis. The 2014 elections just can’t come fast enough for women and the majority of this country.
Here is a reaction from State Senator Fred Risser, who is the longest-serving state legislator in American History.
“I’ve been in the Legislature over 50 years, through different majorities and different minorities, and I have never experienced the abuse of power by the majority party that I experienced today.
The arrogance shown by the Republican Majority today is unprecedented. This is supposed to be a democracy. The Senate is supposed to be a place where the elected representatives of the citizens of the state debate issues. Cutting off debate, preventing female Senators from talking about women’s issues, is not how we do things in Wisconsin and I am disgusted.
The Republican Majority is afraid. They were afraid that they would lose some of their own members who were less than enthusiastic about the measure. They were afraid that they were losing the debate publicly so they had to ram the bill though so the public wouldn’t find out what they are really up to and who they are beholden to. They’re afraid of what’s going to happen in the next election and they should be afraid.”
(Special thanks to Giles Goat Boy)
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Leslie Salzillo is an activist, political commentator and visual artist. She began contributing to Liberals Unite in June of 2013. |
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