Lansing - House Republicans prohibited state Rep. Lisa Brown from speaking on the floor Thursday after she ended a speech Wednesday against a bill restricting abortions by referencing her female anatomy.

Brown, a West Bloomfield Democrat and mother of three, said a package of abortion regulation bills would violate her Jewish religious beliefs that pregnancy be aborted to save the life of the mother.

"Finally, Mr. Speaker, I'm flattered that you're all so interested in my vagina, but 'no' means 'no,'" Brown said Wednesday.

Brown's comment prompted a rebuke Thursday by House Republicans, who wouldn't allow her to voice her opinion on a school employee retirement bill.

"What she said was offensive," said Rep. Mike Callton, R-Nashville. "It was so offensive, I don't even want to say it in front of women. I would not say that in mixed company."

Brown's comments were published in Thursday's Detroit News.

Majority Floor Leader Jim Stamas, R-Midland, determined Brown's comments violated the decorum of the House, said Ari Adler, spokesman for the Republican majority.

"If I can't say the word vagina, why are we legislating vaginas?" Brown asked Thursday at a hastily called Capitol press conference. "What language should I use?"

Brown noted "vagina" is the "medically correct term."

"We're all adults here," she said.

The House tabled a bill Wednesday that would ban all abortions after 20 weeks with a narrow exemption for the life of the mother after passing a bill with new regulations for abortion providers.

House Republicans also wouldn't let state Rep. Barb Byrum speak on the House floor today.

Byrum, D-Onondaga, caused a disturbance on the House floor Wednesday when she wasn't allowed to introduce an amendment to the abortion regulations bill banning men from getting a vasectomy unless the sterilization procedure was necessary to save a man's life.

"If we truly want to make sure children are born, we would regulate vasectomies," Byrum told reporters Thursday.

"We're all adults here," she said.

Melissia wrote:If what she said was offensive, then can I silence Fraz for making weiner dog jokes, because weiner is a word for penis?

"We're all adults here," she said.

In congress? Please!

azazel the cat wrote:This is a wonderfully telling example of the general zeitgeist within the Republic party, harkening back to outmoded pre-victorian ideas that a woman's body is a source of evil and vulgarity.

The really ironic part is that they are also the most staunch opponents of the burka or hijab, despite the fact that those garments are basically just the next links in the misogynist chain that the GOP has been constructing lately.

Byte wrote:Would "mammary gland" be offensive in congress?

Ridiculous.

Maude Lebowski: Does the female form make you uncomfortable, Mr. Lebowski?
The Dude: Uh, is that what this is a picture of?
Maude Lebowski: In a sense, yes. My art has been commended as being strongly vaginal which bothers some men. The word itself makes some men uncomfortable. Vagina.
The Dude: Oh yeah?
Maude Lebowski: Yes, they don't like hearing it and find it difficult to say whereas without batting an eye a man will refer to his dick or his rod or his Johnson.
The Dude: Johnson?