For the crowd that doesn’t seem to be able to define what a woman is, Democrat Reps. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ), Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) recently went full ‘girl power’ during a press conference.
The trio complained that employers who won’t pay female workers to stay home during menstruation are committing ‘economic violence’ against women.
Reps. Yassamin Ansari said, “Today we are here to talk about women’s pain and how long it’s been overlooked. In the summer of 2015, while starting my career in New York City, I woke up on the floor of my local bodega, drenched in sweat, being dragged into an ambulance. Two male paramedics hovered over me and continued to ask me if I was pregnant. I had passed out from period pain.”
“Even now, every month, I have days where it feels like barbed wire is tightening inside me. I’ve taken 2,000 milligrams ibuprofen in 24 hours and still been in tears from the pain. Often end up on the bathroom floor in the fetal position crying, moaning, or vomiting. Still, I’ve put on a blazer and gone to work.”
“I’ve sat in committee hearings nauseous from the pain, quietly breathing to make my way through it. I’ve given speeches at rallies and run town halls while my body was in full revolt. I smiled for photos while silently wondering if I might faint right then and there. In fact, about 15% of women have period pain so debilitating that it disrupts work or school. That is no small number, and yet we are told to’ suck it up.’”
“It’s why during Women’s History Month, I’ve introduced legislation to give workers up to 12 days of paid leave a year for reproductive health. This would cover period pain, yes, but also menopause symptoms, IVF miscarriages, endometriosis flare-ups, and more.”
Rep. Adelita Grijalva added, “I’m here to speak to the, to the thousands of women in Southern Arizona who are tired of being ignored. They are tired of having their pain minimized. They are tired of a healthcare system that treats women’s bodies like an afterthought.”
“Forcing a worker to choose between paying her rent or losing a day pay to recover from a grueling gynecological procedure is not a choice. It’s an economic violence.”
“We are done being gaslit in the exam room. Health is not a luxury and our pain is not an inconvenience. It is time to pass healthcare agenda that truly sees us, respects us, and protects us. It’s time to acknowledge our country’s history history of systemic injustice in women’s healthcare and needs to end.”
Rashida Tlaib closed out the remarks saying, “We’re sick and tired of women having to be expected to say suck it up or still perform at the highest level. They are expected to show up to work despite incredibly painful periods and sit through meetings after being denied competent healthcare. And for far too long, women’s pain has been minimized, ignored, dismissed, and even politicized.”
“We have to guarantee paid leave for reproductive health. That is the minimum.”
“No one should have to choose between their paycheck and their health to be able to manage that kind of incredible pain. This is about listening to us, listening to women when they say they are hurting and that they’re in so much pain, and rejecting the dangerous idea that suffering is simply the price of being a woman.”
“Women’s pain is so often dismissed, minimized, or treated as inconvenient instead of a medical priority. I know this personally. For years, I lost 1 or 2 days of work every month to hormonal migraines, nausea, and severe period pain. And when I did stay at work, I wore sunglasses to block the fluorescent office lights. Our pain is real, and it can no longer be ignored.”
“I’ve seen what happens when women, especially Black women, don’t have access to the care that takes their body seriously. We have been penalized economically for our biology that has been ignored clinically.”
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