'A Beacon For Choice' WA Leaders Pledge To Uphold Abortion Rights

SEATTLE, WA — Lawmakers and leaders from across Washington state gathered Tuesday in Seattle to reaffirm their commitment to protecting abortion access in the Evergreen State.

Late Monday evening, Politco leaked a draft majority opinion showing the U.S. Supreme Court was poised to overturn Roe V. Wade, the landmark abortion ruling which has legalized abortions for over five decades now. A final decision on that case is not expected until late June or early July, and the vote may change before that time, but Washington's top leaders say they aren't going to wait: they're going to do what they can to extend the state's pro-choice protections, and prepare for the worst.

"Washington state was a pro-choice state," said Governor Jay Inslee at a pro-choice rally at Seattle's Kerry Park Tuesday. "Washington state is a pro-choice state, and we are going to fight like hell to keep Washington a pro-choice state."

In 1991, the people of Washington voted in favor of the Reproductive Privacy Act, protecting the right to choose in Washington. As a result, even if the leaked ruling comes to pass and the Surpreme Court strikes down Roe V. Wade, abortions will remain legally protected in Washington. The state is even touting some new abortion protections: Just last month, Inslee signed a bill banning lawsuits against people seeking an abortion and those who aid them, the Associated Press reported, an apparent response to an Idaho bill that allows lawsuits from prospective family members against anyone who receives an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.

However, even though the state has made strides to protect abortion access, Inslee says now is not the time to be complacent.

"The forces of oppression who want to have the government intrude upon Washingtonian's most private decisions are after the right of women to have access to abortion," Inslee said. "We have to act. We cannot rely on the court of appeals. We cannot rely on the U.S. Supreme Court."

The governor promised further protections in the weeks and months to come, including possibly offering protections to those who travel to Washington seeking abortions, enshrining abortion in the state constitution, and expanding resources to provide abortion services to more Washingtonians and to people who come to Washington state for help.

"This is our obligation, and we will fulfill it," Inslee said.

Inslee was joined Tuesday by Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson — no stranger to lawsuits against the federal government — who called the leaked draft "extreme" and "wildly out of step" with the wishes of most Americans.

"It removes and reverses decades of legal precedent relied upon by millions and millions of women in this country," Ferguson said. "It is outrageous, and we will not accept it."

Ferguson went on to promise that his office would do everything in its power to protect abortion as a fundamental legal right, and protect anyone who flees to Washington in order to access abortions or other health care.

In her address, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Washington), who has been outspoken about having had an abortion in the past, characterized the Supreme Court's ruling as government interference into a private matter.

"If this opinion comes to pass, it will be the most horrific and unprecedented rollback of women's rights in our history," Jayapal said. "The leaked draft opinion is a radical, outrageous and deeply dangerous opinion, the culmination of decades of insidious work by Republicans and the extreme right who have rigged the system in their favor."

Notably, the lawmakers speaking at Tuesday's pro-choice rally were universally Democrats. The governor took time during his brief speech to fire a shot across the bow at Republicans for not standing up for women's rights, noting that local GOP members had filed some 40 bills to end abortion in Washington over the past few years.

"We will not allow the tentacles of Texas to get into Washington state," Inslee said.

Locally, Republicans have largely remained silent or have sidestepped the issue. That includes Senate Republican Leader John Braun, who put out a statement criticizing the leak of the draft opinion, but without commenting on the ruling itself.

"It is startling, though, that the draft opinion was leaked," Braun's statement reads. "If true, it's not only illegal, it's an unscrupulous attempt to manipulate public opinion. Unfortunately, this is already intensifying the acrimony in the debate over a very contentious issue."

But while Braun focuses on the issue of decorum, his counterpart, Senate Majority Leader Andy Billig, says something more important is at risk: an erosion of protected human rights.

"For the majority of my life, I have watched the Supreme Court expand and reinforce the rights of Americans — not revoke them," Billig said. "Unfortunately in recent years, we have seen this Court move in a different direction away from basic individual liberties. Our state will remain a beacon for choice and welcome people from other states who are being denied their right to choose.”