CITY OF SEATTLE
RESOLUTION __________________
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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.
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WHEREAS, on May 3, 2022, thousands gathered in cities across the United States, including in Seattle, to protest a leaked draft decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which would overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that has protected the freedom to seek an abortion since 1973; and
WHEREAS, laws restricting access to abortion disproportionately impact poor and working-class people and people of color, because wealthier people have the resources to pay a private doctor exorbitant fees or travel to where quality reproductive healthcare is available; and
WHEREAS, historian Ruth Rosen explained in The World Split Open: How the Modern Women's Movement Changed America that "Advocates of abortion reform estimated that close to one million women had illegal abortions annually before the procedure became legal in 1973, and they attributed some five thousand deaths directly to illegal abortions," showing that throughout history, laws banning abortion do not stop them from happening; and
WHEREAS, while abortion has been legalized nationwide since 1973, working-class women and LGBTQ people have continued to have only limited access to reproductive healthcare, as a result of the inequity and inefficiency of the private, for-profit healthcare and health insurance industries; and
WHEREAS, overturning Roe v. Wade would disregard the human right to bodily autonomy, which could also set a legal precedent used to overturn healthcare and other legal rights for LGBTQ people, while transgender care is already under assault; and
WHEREAS, the Seattle City Council recognizes that pressur...
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