As if the Republican Party of Virginia needed another black
eye with women in the commonwealth, House Speaker Bill Howell[1]
(R-Stafford County) added another sore spot on Thursday when he told
ProgressVA’s[2]
executive director, Anna Scholl, that she didn’t understand him because he
wasn’t using “little enough words.”
The remarks followed an American Executive Exchange Council
(ALEC) study that placed Virginia third among states for economic
competitiveness and pro-business policies.[3]
Howell became noticeably frustrated when asked by Anna
Scholl to clarify upon the inaccuracies alleged by Howell of a recent
ProgressVA report that highlighted ALEC’s legislative and financial influence
in Virginia.
If only these women would stop concerning themselves with
the important issues of government, Howell might as well have said. And it’s
arguable that many within the Virginia GOP feel the same way.
From transvaginal ultrasounds to personhood bills, and now
to verbal gaffes about the use of complex diction, the VA GOP appears to be
doing little more than degrading the agency and the intelligence of women in a
systematic manner and, in Howell’s case, off-the cuff manner.
By telling a woman when personhood begins in her womb, the
VA GOP has effectively stripped women in the commonwealth of making that
decision for themselves. After all, who knows better than a man about what
constitutes personhood in a woman’s body?
A similar deduction of agency and intelligence with regards
to women can also be cited for the ultrasound measure which passed through the
General Assembly in 2012.
Virginia’s Republicans should look at their calendars. It’s
2012, not 1860. It’s time to recognize that all human beings deserve the same
rights and respect.
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