U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean Arrested With Others At Abortion Protest

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Congresswoman from the Philadelphia suburbs was one of a large group of people arrested this week at the nation's Capitol for a public protest over the U.S. Supreme Court's recent overturning of Roe v. Wade.

U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean, a Democrat representing Pennsylvania's 4th Congressional District, was one of 17 federal legislators who were arrested Tuesday for blocking a public street between the Capitol Building and the U.S. Supreme Court building while rallying in support of abortion laws.

A total number of 35 individuals were reportedly arrested during the protest.

Another federal lawmaker cited during the protest was Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, a Democrat from neighboring New Jersey.

Dean, a vocal progressive from Montgomery County, Pa., who previously served as both an Abington Township commissioner and a state representative, tweeted a photo of herself being led away by a U.S. Capitol Police officer.

"Right wing extremists and republicans put us in this position," Dean tweeted alongside the photo. "We're fighting like hell to reverse their damage and protect the rights of women. I do this for my granddaughters, daughters in law, women and girls across the nation."

Patch reached out to Dean's communications team, who provided a statement released by the congresswoman following her arrest.

In the remarks, Dean said she participated in the Tuesday protest as an act of civil disobedience, to decry what she termed the Supreme Court's "horrendous, unjust Dobbs decision."

"That we're now living in a post-Roe world is hard to imagine, and it's the result of a decades-long, concerted effort on the right to ensure an extremist federal judiciary — one laden with judges willing to legislative from the bench against public opinion," Dean said in her statement. "We know that this [sic] Americans nationwide overwhelmingly support access to abortion."

Dean said that she is upset knowing young girls coming up in the world now will enjoy less rights than their mothers and grandmothers, and that she is determined to "stand against this assault on our rights."

"I will do all that I can, and I will fight as hard as I can, to ensure that we do not go backwards — to ensure that our rights are protected and expanded," Dean stated.

Dean had participated in a local abortion-rights rally in her hometown of Abington back in May, an event that Patch attended.

Related: 'Our Bodies Our Choice': Abortion Rights Rally Held In Montco

The decision that effectively overturned Roe v. Wade, which was Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, was a case out of Mississippi that originated with litigation over that state's 2018 statute that made abortion after 15 weeks' gestation a crime.

In the majority opinion, the Supreme Court determined that Roe was previously decided erroneously, and that the U.S. Constitution does not actually confer a federal right to an abortion.

The court ruling essentially kicked the abortion issue back to the individual states, and some have since enacted either partial, or total abortion bans, some even in cases that involved rape, incest or in which the life of the mother is in jeopardy.

The contentious issue has sparked nationwide protest over what some people are saying is an assault on women's rights.

Pro-life organizations, however, have come out in support of the high court's decision, saying that abortion should never have been guaranteed as a federal constitutional right in the first place.

Following the Dobbs decision, lawmakers in Pennsylvania late last month proposed a bill that would codify abortion rights that had been protected with Roe into state law in the commonwealth.