{"id":3759,"date":"2023-04-17T13:56:08","date_gmt":"2023-04-17T20:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/senatedemocrats.wa.gov\/dhingra\/?p=3759"},"modified":"2023-04-17T13:56:08","modified_gmt":"2023-04-17T20:56:08","slug":"protecting-the-right-to-choose-and-increasing-access-to-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/senatedemocrats.wa.gov\/dhingra\/2023\/04\/17\/protecting-the-right-to-choose-and-increasing-access-to-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Protecting the right to choose \u2014 and increasing access to care"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear neighbors:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe state may not deny or interfere with a woman\u2019s right to choose to have an abortion prior to viability of the fetus, or to protect her life or health.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those are the unequivocal words of an initiative passed by the people of this state more than 30 years ago to guarantee Washingtonians\u2019 reproductive freedom. In fact, the people of our state have twice voted to protect abortion rights: first by passing Referendum 20<\/a> in 1970, more than two years before the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s Roe v. Wade <\/em>decision, and second by passing Initiative 120<\/a>, the Reproductive Privacy Act, in 1991, codifying the Roe <\/em>protections into state law.<\/p>\n

But rights by themselves are meaningless without actual access to care. While extremist judges in parts of the country are trying to roll back reproductive freedoms and access to gender affirming care, our state is protecting both rights and access.<\/p>\n