(Images courtesy of TVW)
Governor Jay Inslee makes a rare appearance in a State Senate committee, where he argued for a State Constitutional amendment to protect women’s right to an abortion.
The Governor says the move to put abortion rights and restrictions already in state law into the Constitution would protect women from a constant assault on their freedom and psychological security, including, he says, from Washington lawmakers he says have already filed bills to change the state’s abortion law in just the first two weeks of their session. “There’s a group in Congress who wants to outlaw this on a national basis,” Inslee says, “so I think women should be freed from that and given the security of knowing this is fixed in our Constitution.”
Republican lawmakers questioned the Governor on whether an amendment is necessary since they say multiple attempts over the past three decades to change the law currently on the books have failed. Spokane Valley Republican Senator, Mike Padden, also asked Inslee if the amendment would maintain limits on abortion services already in the law, to which the Governor replied that the amendment is meant to enshrine the existing law in the State Constitution.
Julie Barrett with the Conservative Ladies of Washington told the committee about her last-minute decision against having an abortion. Barrett is among those who argued the law is settled in our state. Barrett tells the Senate Health and Long Term Care Committee, “The fear mongering must stop, and my plea today is to our Republican legislators: do not vote to advance this bill. No one has the fundamental right to take the life of another human being.”
Two-thirds of both houses of the State Legislature would have to vote to send the proposed amendment to you for a vote, where a simple majority is needed to pass it.
You can watch the entire hearing on TVW here.