The Seattle City Council has voted in favor of a bill making it a “sanctuary city” for abortion. This was passed in spite of the fact that abortion remains legal throughout Washington state.
The bill was proposed by Councilmember Kshama Sawant at a news conference on June 24, the day the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. “Laws violating basic bodily autonomy and criminalizing reproductive health care are fundamentally unjust and we should not allow Seattle to be complicit,” she said on Tuesday. “Let anyone frightened by draconian anti-abortion laws come to Seattle without fear of prosecution.”
The bill, which was passed unanimously, bars Seattle police from arresting people on warrants issued in other jurisdictions, as well as from aiding in investigations related to seeking or committing abortions. It’s modeled after Seattle’s Initiative 75, which bans the Seattle Police Department from arresting people on charges relating to cannabis, even though it is still illegal on the federal level.
“The reality is the states that have passed draconian anti-abortion laws also make it impossible to be licensed to provide reproductive health care,” Sawant told the Seattle Times. “And as a result, people are forced to find other illegal ways to do the same thing.”
Read more at Live Action.
Translating this article to one sentence: “SCOTUS Ruling Implemented. State Legislature Back in Charge.”