By now you've probably seen Wisconsin state senator Mike Ellis totally lose it and break the gavel-stand while bellowing from behind his sungalsses at Democratic senators to sit down -- so the Senate could ram through the vaginal-ultrasound-mandate bill that had first been introduced just over a week earlier. (If you didn't see it on Rachel Maddow, see Giles Goat Boy's recommended diary.
What you may not have heard was the Senator who spoke just before debate was cut off. Meet Mary Lazich, GOP author conduit of the bill for the forced-birth contingent of her party's legislators. Which means every single Republican legislator in Wisconsin -- the vote was completely party-line.
Here's the key revisionist/alternate-reality claim in her six-minute rant (quote starts at 4:45 --go directly via this link or watch entire video below):
These abortions... you know, it became popular in the '60s. It was almost the thing to do. You needed to get one of them to be a woman.
If you have the stomach for it, the entire rant is revealing -- Senator Ellis was not the only one who came unhinged that day. (The "theatrics" she refers to at the beginning were the brave storytelling of Democratic Senator Kathleen Vinehout, who spoke of having been sexually assaulted as a teenager, and the bill's appallingly insufficient protections for survivors of rape or incest against being violated yet again via ultrasound wand.)
But there's a question waiting for Mary Lazich on the other side of the jump.
Senator Lazich, do you know what year Roe v. Wade was decided?
1973.
Nineteen seventy three!
Abortion was ILLEGAL in the sixties. It was back-alley. It was coat-hangers. It was desperately dangerous. Women DIED in their desperation.
And the forced-ultrasound bill built on the utter denial of this history...
was sent over to the Assembly (where silence would not be tolerated) on yet another lie. [The quote is at 2:50 - go directly via this link or watch the entire shameful scene below.]
Senate President Mike Ellis: The Senator from the 13th.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald: Ask unanimous consent that all of our actions be immediately messaged to the Assembly.
[Roar of protest from the Democratic senators barely has a chance to begin when...
Ellis: WITHOUT OBJECTION, SO ORDERED!
Bear witness, friends. This is happening in Wisconsin.