A week after Gov. Mike Pence signed the controversial abortion bill HEA 1337 into law, his office fielded a call from Sue Magina.
“That’s M-A-G-I-N-A. It rhymes with —”
“I’ve got it,” the operator said.
Magina called to update Pence on the state of her uterus.
“I just wanted to inform the Governor that things seem to be drying up today,” she said. “No babies seem to be up in there.”
Magina, who preferred not to disclose her real name for privacy reasons, runs a Facebook page called “Periods for Pence.” Through it, she encourages supporters to call Pence and tell him about their menstrual cycles.
Periods for Pence sarted after a conversation between its creator, a 39-year-old woman and mother of one, and her husband. She had read through HEA 1337 and seen coverage of it on the news. She said she thought the bill was ridiculous.
“If they want to know what’s going on down there, I should tell them everything,” she said.
“Yeah, you should,” her husband replied.
Under HEA 1337, women are prohibited from seeking abortions based on race, gender and possible fetal abnormalities. They also must attend an ultrasound screening 18 hours before the procedure and listen to the fetal heartbeat. Abortion providers are required to cremate or bury fetal remains from both abortions and miscarriages.
HEA 1337 states, “human physical life begins when a human ovum is fertilized by a human sperm.” Scientifically, it is possible and frequent for the uterus to expel fertilized eggs. “Periods for Pence” creator wondered if her monthly cycle counted as an abortion under the law.
She created the Facebook page on March 28, wrote a couple posts and called Pence’s office in the morning.
“Good morning,” she said, according to the Facebook page. “I just wanted to call and let the governor know that I am still not pregnant, since he seems to be so worried about reproductive rights.”
She’s called once a day every weekday since.
“I try to be humorous with the calls,” she said. “I don’t want to harass them. I say, ‘Here’s the daily update: today’s a good day, today I had cramps.’”
Initially, she said she just wanted to let Pence and other pro-life legislators know she was watching, she was disappointed and she votes.
Since its creation, the page has amassed nearly 20,000 likes and prompted calls to Pence’s office from Hoosiers as well as Floridians, Minnesotans and Ohioans. A group from Poland, inspired by Periods for Pence, is putting on events for Polish women to call their pro-life Prime Minister and tell him about their cycles.
After the enthusiastic response on Facebook, “Periods for Pence” expanded to Twitter, where it has more than 1,000 followers.
Indianapolis resident Kimberly Bannister discovered “Periods for Pence” through an article on Facebook. She didn’t have time to call Pence’s office because she routinely commutes from Indianapolis to South Bend, but she had time to tweet.
“@GovPenceIN Seeing you and I are in it together for my uterus now, I’m demanding monthly Uterus $upport for supplies. @periodsforpence,” the tweet said.
“It all boils down to my body, my decision,” Bannister said. “I don’t need some man who doesn’t have my parts to tell me how to use them.”
The “Periods for Pence” creator said she’s completely overwhelmed by her page’s popularity. She said she receives around 100 private messages a day from women who want to share their stories.
“I want to encourage women,” she said. “We often feel like we don’t have a voice. We have to be our own voices.”
Stephanie Hodgin, deputy press secretary for Pence, said Pence is willing to listen.
“We are always willing to take calls from constituents who have questions, concerns or are looking for assistance.”
