Sen. Joan Bray angers male senators with comments on abortion bill
Bray
JEFFERSON CITY — The fallout from the Senate compromise on the abortion bill grew exponentially this morning.
Sen. Jack Goodman, R-Mt. Vernon, chastised Sen. Joan Bray, D-University City, on the floor of the Senate this morning for her comments last night criticizing the “men” who control the abortion debate for disrespecting women. (More on that in a bit).
And the compromise that senators worked so hard at might have gone up in smoke. Anti-abortion lobbyists told key House members this morning that they oppose the compromise because they believe it undoes hard-fought for regulations in the informed consent law passed in 2003.
According to anti-abortion activist Sam Lee, the bill that came out of the Senate opens up the possibility that the existing informed consent laws would be put on hold during a possible legal challenge of the new law. That’s because of a provision that gives the Columbia Planned Parenthood clinic a 3-year pass on following the new law. Theoretically, Lee says, Planned Parenthood could sue over most of the law, but not that section. During the several years a court case might take, the 2003 provisions might not be enforceable, he said.
Lee sent a letter to House speaker pro tem Bryan Pratt this morning urging him to oppose the new abortion bill. The House could send it’s older version to the Senate, or it could seek a conference where compromise could be reached.
As for Goodman and Bray, their testy exchange this morning led Majority Floor Leader Kevin Engler to walk out at one point.
Last night, Bray gave an impassioned speech decrying what she called the sexism behind abortion bills year after year. Her strongest line implied that lawmakers were “pro-life” with their wives and “pro-choice” with their girlfriends. No senators responded to the line at the time.
But this morning Goodman called Bray’s remarks “highly offensive” and “slanderous.”
Goodman said Bray had insulted “decent, committed families” and Senate spouses who shoulder the job of being a single parent during the week when the Legislature is in session.
Bray responded that she was talking about the ethical culture of the Capitol.
“I did not say this chamber specifically. I said around here.”
Engler left the chamber during Bray’s remarks. When he returned he said he didn’t want to listen to that “crap.”
Below is the full speech Bray gave last night. Thanks to Bob Watson for the transcript:
“After multiple years on this issue, I’m sick of it. I’m totally sick of it.
I’m sick of women being treated like they are so stupid that they can’t make their own decisions regarding their reproductive rights and their bodies.
I’m sick of women having no options, and being coerced to give birth.
I’m sick of a bunch of men around here, year after year after year, piling up restriction after restriction after restriction on women who found themselves in a very unhappy, unpleasant circumstance of an unwanted pregnancy.
Missouri has the most restrictive abortion laws in the country and, as a result, Missouri’s women are put in danger when they finally do ever get to have an abortion — they’re later and they’re tougher abortions to have because there are so many barriers to Missouri women getting to have a safe and legal abortion.
I am sick of the disrespect for women who come to the Capitol defending a woman’s legal right to choose an abortion.
I am sick that they’re being treated dismissively and rudely.
I’m sick of the ethic around here that men are pro-life for their wives and pro-choice for their girlfriends.
I’m sick of the failure to take steps that would, in fact, reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies, through sex education, contraception, family planning and emergency contraception.
No man in this body will ever have an unwanted pregnancy.
But, mark my word, your daughters, your wives, your sisters, your granddaughters, your nieces will.
And your actions here tonight will disrespect and diminish them.”
Ms. Bray is a typical Liberal Democrat Generalist. Loves to generalize all men and blame her issue on someone else. We’ll if it’s a woman’s right to choose, then it shouldn’t be a mans obligation to provide child support if she chooses to have a baby out of wedlock. Think on that one.
Brava, Sen. Bray! You go, girl!
It sounds to me as if some of the knuckle-draggers whose outstate “sensibilities” were tweaked are just a little too thin-skinned to be holding public office.
Lord help ‘em if they ever had to give birth or do something else with a modicum of difficulty!
Truth be told! Men can’t deal with it! That’s why women have to take charge of things and make their own decisions!
Joey-
Most of the people that are so “pro-life” are not pro-life, but rather pro-birth and don’t give a rip about that child and his/her possibly single mother and what happens to them after they leave the hospital. That’s what I love about the hypocrisy of the republican party. THey want the woman to have the child, but don’t want to do anything else with it afterwards. And God forbid we actually try tro PREVENT these pregnancies to begin with! Wasn’t it your dear Cynthia Davis who wants to prevent women from getting birth control and condoms at clinics? Talk about a quack…that woman has more than one screw extremely loose!
“make the pill free and give it to every girl over 12 without parent consent.” –pneuma
1) Making “the pill” free would be the decision of the pill manufacturer, would it not? Unless you want to pay for it. I do not. And it certainly is not a power delegated to the federal government in the Constitution to pay for it. But if you guys want to set up your own private organization to pay for free pills, you can do so.
2) I do not believe in dispensing pills, drugs, or medical procedures of any kind to minor children without parental consent. That’s what parents are for.
Ya know….bray is what comes out of the front end of a jackass.
“Men - if and when you can get an abortion then you can comment on it. Otherwise, your opinion is moot.” Keya Murdock
Tonya makes a good point a few posts above yours. Men like Chris Coleman don’t seem to have the same strength of public support as the pregnant women who find their unwanted family too burdensome.
Now if the strident “keep you hands off my body” people would just say those same words to the men taking their pants off…
I’m not going to comment on the senator or the bill. Instead, what I’m going to do is tell you how abortion can affect a man–specifically, me.
When my mother was 24 years old, she had a boyfriend. She ended up pregnant, and when she found out, the boyfriend bolted. She had decent employment, but not good enough to care for a child on her own. My grandmother said she might want to get an abortion. My grandfather said she should get an abortion. Her sister, brother, family, and friends all said the same thing–you should have an abortion, or else you won’t be able to care for the child.
Yet, she went against popular consensus of her family, friends, and the general public, and gave birth to me. I was born into a family without hardly any education, definitively low-income and void of many opportunities. Yet, here I sit nearly 29 years later, having spent six great and honorable years in the United States Navy, and getting ready to graduate from the University of Missouri on Saturday, and also having been accepted into the MU School of Law’s Class of 2012.
Had all the popular arguments in favor of abortion (freedom of choice, low income family, no chances in society, easier life, unplanned pregnancy, etc.) been taken to heart by my mother, she would not have had me. I would not be writing this today, because I would not be alive today. Instead, I would be another discarded child, in the middle of a stack of over 35,000,000 discarded children. Instead, I have a chance to not only better my life, but the lives of my family as well.
You are free to feel the way you feel. But don’t sit there at your keyboard and tell me that abortion doesn’t affect men and that I shouldn’t have a voice on the subject because I wasn’t born with ovaries. That is the most sexist, pretentious position I’ve ever heard. It affects EVERYONE, man and woman, adult and child.
Joan, you are my hero! Have you folks ever noticed that sometimes the ones the complain the loudest are the most guilty. How many politicians swore that Bill Clinton was an animal only to find out they were as well. I’m thinkin’ that if you follow the ones that are vocally outraged by her comments you’ll see the ones who have chosen abortion for their girlfriends so their wives wouldn’t find out.
“Making “the pill” free would be the decision of the pill manufacturer, would it not? Unless you want to pay for it. I do not.”
So you are willing to let hundreds of thousands of babies die a year because you are unwilling to pay a couple of dollars more a month in taxes? What the hell kind of monster are you? You are all for saving babies, unless it is inconvenient for you? You are fine with telling other people that they should suffer for their mistakes, but you are willing to do nothing to help prevent them? Classy.
“I do not believe in dispensing pills, drugs, or medical procedures of any kind to minor children without parental consent. That’s what parents are for.”
So you would be in favor of letting children die because their parents have a religious belief that conflicts with modern medicine (which happens all the time btw)? What the hell kind of monster are you? You really believe the rights of parents to enslave their children are more important than a child’s life?
See? You don’t really care about saving the lives of children. You just think people should live the way you tell them.
Remember folks, in the end, conservatives always lose. If they didn’t, we’d still be living in caves.