It’s gonna be a dry summer in Michigan, boys.

Michigan lawmaker Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit) is calling for a
statewide
sex boycott after the state legislature’s lower house passed a
slate of bills designed to restrict access abortion services—under
the guise of protecting women’s health. 

“We’re launching a war on women. Stop having sex with us,
gentlemen, and I ask women to boycott men until they stop moving
this through the House.”

The 45-page cockblock in question aims to regulate nearly every
aspect of reproductive health services, from rigid restrictions on
health centers to targeting physicians who provide abortion
services. Taking a cue from restrictive legislation passed in
Virginia, Alabama, and Georgia, one of the nation’s most severe
anti-abortion bill burdens both women and health care providers
with onerous regulations by:

1. Criminalizing all abortions after 20 weeks: Under the omnibus
   package, women in Michigan could face criminal charges for seeking
   abortion services after 20 weeks of pregnancy, even in cases of
   rape or when the woman’s health is at risk. Since
   fetal abnormality scans are not performed until about 20 weeks
   into the pregnancy, Michigan women will not be able to explore
   abortion options even if their child is at risk for Down Syndrome
   or other conditions—at least, not without facing legal woes and
   fines.
2. Restricting reproductive health services for rural women: The
   legislation requires physicians to be present when prescribing the
   abortion pill or emergency contraceptives—meaning no more
   over-the-phone prescribing. For women in rural areas, what’s easily
   accomplished by a phone call with a doctor may soon require hours
   of travel to meet face-to-face with a physician. (This, despite the
   fact that recent studies have demonstrated that telemedicine is
   a safe
   and effective way to provide medication abortions.) The
   morning-after-pill is more effective the sooner its taken, which
   means the bill not only makes it difficult to terminate unwanted
   pregnancies, it also makes it harder to prevent them.
3. Regulating abortion clinics into oblivion: The legislation
   requires health centers that perform more than six abortions a
   month to be equipped with operational surgery rooms, even if they
   don’t provide surgical abortions. The result: many reproductive
   health centers will close due to lack of adequate funds.

Supporters of the bill maintain that the legislation is designed
to protect women and their health. What remains unclear, however,
is exactly how tricky regulations, threats of criminal sanction,
and unnecessary equipment will help achieve that end.

What Michigan women need more than ever is an open, honest
discussion of the issue at hand—but even that seems impossible for
the Great Lake State. Michigan state Rep. Lisa Brown (D-West
Bloomfield) was prohibited
from speaking in the legislature on its final day in session
after using the word vagina in a floor speech on Thursday.
Because there’s definitely no good reason to use the appropriate
medical term for a female reproductive organ during a hearing on
abortions, right? Perhaps next time, Brown can show a little
self-restraint and use an appropriate euphemism: “Mr. Speaker, I’m
flattered you’re all so interested in my furburger. But
no means no.”