This week, I stood with hundreds of community members and vital voices like NARAL, Planned Parenthood, and Seattle Indivisible for a #StopTheBans Day of Action at City Hall. I am so proud to live and work in a city that turns out in droves on a Tuesday afternoon to stand up and fight for our freedoms.
We raised our voices in protest of the anti-choice abortion bans that are sweeping this country. These bans are extreme. They’re cruel. They’re unconstitutional. And they’re absolutely not going to stand.
People have been asking me what I think of these bans, especially Georgia’s restrictive and destructive “heartbeat law.” I say, how about this?
If a woman has a heartbeat, you should stay out of her bedroom, out of her doctor’s office, and keep your hands off her health care decisions.
This fight isn’t just about abortion rights. It’s about who we want to be as a country. For those who claim to be pro-life: Where is our universal health care? Where is pre-natal care for every pregnant person? Where is our investment in opportunity for every child in this country, regardless of their background?
These new abortion bans are a draconian attempt to overthrow Roe v. Wade and attack reproductive rights and freedoms. But we were clear at City Hall on Tuesday: We won’t go back. We will march, we will organize, and we will vote. Because the only way we can stop laws that continue to infringe on our rights is if we control who makes our laws.
We will march forward and demand that we get universal rights for every child, every woman, and every person in Seattle and across this country. In Seattle, we know – and I can’t believe we still have to say this – that women are people. And that we have a fundamental right to freedom over our own bodies.
As always, please continue to write me at Jenny.Durkan@seattle.gov, reach out via Twitter and Facebook, and stay up-to-date on the work we’re doing for the people of Seattle on my blog.
Onward,
This blog post is an excerpt from Mayor Jenny Durkan’s weekly newsletter. If would like more content like this, and a weekly recap of the exciting things happening in the City of Seattle, you can subscribe here.