Why Women Are Telling the Governor of Indiana All About Their Periods
It’s been a week of TMI for Indiana Gov. Mike Pence. (Photo: Getty Images)
In the past week, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence has received telephone calls from constituents who have shared where they are in their menstrual cycles, tweets from women asking him to remind them to take their birth control pills, and even invitations to attend their next visit to the gynecologist.
Why? Because Pence just signed into law some of the most restrictive abortion legislation in the country.
And women both in the state of Indiana and across the country have decided that — since Pence seems seriously invested in being involved in every medical decision a woman makes for herself — he should be kept in the loop of every nuance of their reproductive health.
And they’re using the hashtag #periodsforpence and the Twitter handle @periodsforpence to do just that.
This isn’t the first time women have taken to social media to let politicians who attempt to mansplain women’s health to women themselves — or, worse still, use women’s bodies as an insult — just how they feel.
Let’s not forget this fall’s #PeriodsAreNotAnInsult campaign, launched by women who wanted to make sure that GOP frontrunner and reality TV star Donald Trump was acquainted with the nuances of biology after his flubbed response to Megyn Kelly’s questioning during the first Republican debate.
And, of course, there was that one pioneering soul who painted a portrait of Trump using her own menstrual blood.
A new Etsy-sold line of underwear features so-called “gyno-ticians” such as Trump, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, and former Arkansas governor and Fox News commentator talking head Mike Huckabee on the interior crotch — and we assume that if #PeriodsForPence has anything to say about it, the governor will be added to the lineup in time for, well, your next period.
