Last week, state representatives Lisa Brown, D-West Bloomfield, and Barb Byrum, D-Onondaga, were chastised for using “questionable” language on the House floor. The next day, both women were banned from speaking on the floor of the Michigan House of Representatives — Brown because she referred to her vagina when talking about the abortion “super bill” being pushed through the House, and Byrum because she was crass enough to suggest that this new set of discriminatory laws also should govern vasectomy procedures.

If Michigan legislators can’t handle hearing the word “vagina,” then perhaps they’re not mature enough to be writing laws and making decisions that concern women, who — shocker! — have vaginas.

The fact Brown and Byrum were not permitted to speak on the issue after making remarks that some legislators simply didn’t agree with is entirely unjust. The actions of House Majority Leader Jim Stamas in prohibiting these representatives from speaking about the issues put an unwarranted stop to the democratic process in the Michigan Legislature by refusing to listen to all sides of the issue.

Ari Adler, spokesman for the House speaker, said silencing Brown and Byrum was necessary in order to “ensure that the proper level of maturity and civility are maintained on the House floor.” Adler also stated that under Stamas’ floor leadership, “the House Republicans have allowed more debate on the House floor than ever seen in the past few sessions when House Democrats were in charge.”

I read this as saying: “The Democrats were mean to us, so now we’re going to be mean to them.” Clearly, maturity isn’t a topic that House Republicans should be addressing with such familiarity.

Adler later readjusted his statement to say Rep. Lisa Brown was being admonished for ending her speech on the House floor with the phrase: “No means no,” which, in the eyes of several Republican representatives, equated the set of bills in question to rape. However, I think that’s a reasonable comparison, given that this set of bills would essentially take away a woman’s right to decide what happens to her body, which is, in fact, one element of rape.

After much foot in mouth, Adler changed his phrasing once more, referring to Brown and Byrum’s statements as “temper tantrums.” Adler clearly is playing into the stereotype that women are overly emotional, thus incapable of making decisions without the assistance of a smart, stable-minded man.

But let’s get back to the issue of subservience. The reason I say women should make an effort not to be subservient to men is because of laws such as HB 5711, HB 5712 and HB 5713, a series of anti-abortion bills currently making their way through the Michigan Legislature. When laws detrimental to women’s rights and women’s health are enacted, they can have a snowball effect. Things will only continue to get worse.

We’ve seen this in the actions taken against Brown and Byrum. We can’t allow a male-dominated Legislature to walk all over us.

It’s fantastic we have strong women leaders such as Brown and Byrum who are willing to stand up for what they believe in, but their voices are being quieted. If the voices of our representatives are silenced, then we too are silenced. If no one can speak for us, then we must speak for ourselves.

Thankfully, Michigan is home to thousands of men and women who already know this. On Tuesday and Thursday of last week, hundreds of concerned citizens rallied at the state Capitol in Lansing to express their disapproval for HB 5711, HB 5712 and HB 5713.

HB 5711, which has been passed by the Michigan House, will require coercion screenings for all women seeking an abortion, restrict access to contraception such as the morning-after pill and impose several new and expensive regulations on abortion providers that could cause abortion clinics to shut their doors due to the restrictive costs.

HB 5712 and HB 5713 also contain important additions to this abortion “super bill.” These bills would place a ban on all abortions after 20 weeks, without providing exceptions for rape and incest.

I can’t express enough just how important it is that women of all ages take a stand against these bills. We as women cannot just sit back quietly while men are allowed to make decisions on our behalf. It is important that our voices are heard, we just need to make sure we are speaking loudly enough — and not using the word “vagina.”

Caron Creighton is a guest columnist at The State News and a professional writing senior. Reach her at creigh16@msu.edu.