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Abortion rights protesters in Seattle last week (Image: Matt Mitgang)
District 3 representative Kshama Sawant says she will introduce a resolution at Tuesday’s meeting of the full Seattle City Council calling on Congress to “codify Roe v. Wade.”
“On Friday and Saturday, May 13th and 14th, thousands more are expected to rally,” Sawant says in a statement from her office. “Students and workers across the country are organizing walkouts at their schools, universities and workplaces, pointing the way forward in how we can fight back against these attacks.”
“In solidarity with these vital protest actions,” Sawant says her “socialist Council office” is putting forward a resolution to the City Council, “urging the US Congress to immediately codify Roe v. Wade.”
CHS reported here on the first wave of Seattle abortion rights rallies and protests planned in response to the leaked draft opinion from the Supreme Court to strike down the landmark Roe v. Wade decision on abortion rights. A crowd estimated at more than 1,000 people gathered in Seattle’s Westlake Plaza last Wednesday night for an abortion rights rally and march that filled the city’s downtown streets with hundreds calling for protection of reproductive rights. Later in the night, a group of black bloc protesters gathered near Capitol Hill’s Cal Anderson Park. There were no reports of property damage and no reported arrests.
Refuse Fascism Seattle has announced plans for a week of actions including a Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights protest starting at Capitol Hill’s Seattle Central College Plaza along Broadway on Saturday, May 14th.
UPDATE: Multiple protest and rally efforts are taking shape. The Planned Parenthood Action Fund is also calling for supporters to gather on Capitol Hill Saturday starting at 11 AM in Cal Anderson as part of rallies and marches it is organizing around the country.
UPDATE x2: Organizer and activist Nikkita Oliver says a youth-organized group is planning to march Friday afternoon from Cal Anderson to City Hall. “We are advocating for bodily autonomy for all people,” the Beauty in Our Community group organizers say. “We’re not going to be talking about ‘women’s rights’ because reproductive justice is about so much more than cis-women’s rights to abortion. We are demanding that Roe v. Wade not be overturned.”
Come out support the youth! pic.twitter.com/RWVqc4fwig
— nikkita oliver (they/them) (@NikkitaOliver) May 5, 2022
Sawant says her resolution will “call on the Supreme Court to immediately retract their support for this opinion and to respect the bodily autonomy of women and LGBTQ people” and “urge all federal elected officials to codify the full right to abortion and other reproductive healthcare nationwide.”
The resolution will also pledge the use of “city funds in this year’s upcoming budget to expand access to reproductive healthcare locally.”
Sawant says the resolution will also express support for protests by stating “the City of Seattle strongly supports the grassroots organizing and movement building required to put social pressure on elected officials and the judiciary to defend against this historic attack on the rights of women, pregnant people, and the LGBTQ community.”
The Congressional path to protecting Roe v. Wade abortion rights seems nearly impossible with Republicans capable of scuttling any attempts at achieving the required 60% approval in the Senate with the filibuster. State legislatures might present the best hope — for only portions of the nation.
Resolutions like the one planned to be introduced by Sawant and voted on Tuesday have sometimes become the source of larger debate under the makeup of the current city council. Alex Pedersen, representing Northeast Seattle on the council, has opposed some of the body’s more far flung resolution efforts, and, now joined by citywide rep Sara Nelson, has more actively voted against nonbinding resolutions.
In the announcement, Sawant’s office is calling on supporters to take part in public comment Tuesday in support of the resolution:
Tell City Council to Pass Councilmember Sawant’s Resolution Urging the US Congress to Codify Roe v Wade!
Give Public Comment
Tuesday, May 10th,
12PM Noon Sign Up, 2PM Speak in Public Comment at the City Council meeting
UPDATE 5/11/2022: The council unanimously approved the legislation:
3. RES 32054 Adopted as amended (8-0) A RESOLUTION in support of abortion rights and other reproductive rights, in opposition to the U.S. Supreme Court draft majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization; and urging state and federal elected officials to codify abortion rights and other reproductive rights.
UPDATE: Protests have also targeted the Catholic Archdiocese with an incident involving security and protesters outside First Hill’s St. James Cathedral one of many across the country during Sunday services. Video of the incident recorded amid security contractors at the First Hill church shows the protest and a heated confrontation:
Security prevents pro-abortion activist from advancing on St. James Cathedral. pic.twitter.com/5gD2jnciIw
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) May 9, 2022
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Instead of focusing your efforts on your responsibilities in your district, once again you say “Look over here.” The Supreme Court isn’t going to listen to your call for Roe v. Wade to be codified. Why don’t you focus on trying to solve the massive challenges we have right here? Well, because it’s easier to get a rally around the dismantlement of Roe, and you just can’t pass up the opportunity to shove yourself to the front of this already motivated parade.
This state has a law codifying access to abortion already…if this ruling goes into effect in June there will be no change here in WA. This is a waste of time to get Sawant’s name in the paper again instead of working on issues in her district and city.
I’m tired of politicians stoking emotions about things they have no control over instead of focusing on the work at hand.
Sawant in 2016 nationally advocated against voting for Hillary Clinton, saying some sort of nonsense about her being just as bad as Trump. Her influence undoubtedly helped sway Progressives from voting, or from voting for Hillary. We know the rest – Trump wins a surprise victory, fueled by Bernie Sanders primary voters who sat out or voted for Stein, Johnson or Trump in the General Election. Enough to sway the election for Trump, enough to make a difference in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
Six years later, here she is using the disaster she helped create to raise funds for the Socialist Alternative.
Kshama Sawant is a pretty blatant hypocrite. She advocated against the woman who would have protected Roe, who fought for Roe her whole public life, and who undoubtedly would not have appointed disasters like Kavanaugh and Barrett to the Supreme Court.
Every Sawant supporter out there in D3 and elsewhere – you helped make this disaster. Stop using it to further your own financial and political agendas. You don’t care one damn about womens’ rights, you are co-opting womens’ rights and the fight to defend Roe v Wade to turn it into your usual Marxist Socialist BS.
Your assessment of history is spot on.
More self-serving grandstanding from comrade Sawant to pump up her ego and war chest with out-of-state donations. This rally won’t do a damn thing. Take that energy and focus it on issues within the purview of City Council for once.
Thanks to everyone who commented on Sawant’s out of District 3’s efforts. Why doesn’t she work for the city rather than her own agenda? Can we say she might want to run for a higher office?
She couldn’t get elected dog catcher outside of D3. No chance of higher office for Sawant in WA.
Thank goodness!!
These resolutions are totally outside the council’s bailiwick and do nothing. When they are done on official time, they cost you money (yes, YOU, dear reader). Maybe not a lot of money, but money all the same.
Why couldn’t she have just tweeted that she supports abortion rights? Can anyone explain to me what is the value-add to making it an official resolution when it is wildly outside of the city’s jurisdiction?