Three states. One response.
It’s been a difficult day.
Yes, the ruling was expected (heck, we’d read it already weeks ago—you’d think Alito would have bothered to try harder), but that didn’t make it any easier. And responses have run the gamut from poems and songs (yeah, those are helpful) to protests in the streets to responses by elected officials that, in the eyes of many, haven’t met the moment and the desire to fight back against an unjust Supreme Court. We’ve seen responses from President Biden, Speaker Pelosi, and many other elected officials.
But the response I think was the best of the day has been barely mentioned online (this is only the second diary on the subject; take a bow, Frank Pedraza, for being first!) and is only a minute and 17 seconds long.
If you don’t have time to watch it (busy, aren’t you?), you can read the details at this link. (All three governors posted it; the California site had the summary PDF.)
The key is that all three governors—Jay Inslee in Washington, Kate Brown in Oregon, and Gavin Newsom in California—have issued a Multi State Commitment to Reproductive Freedom. It’s a short statement and worth reading, but the point is that all three states are working together to protect those who get abortions in these states, whether from here or not; to protect those who assist; to block extradition to states that want to prosecute for having or assisting with abortions, to defend medical professionals, to combat misinformation, and more. It’s a very well-written and detailed statement for being barely 700 words long including titles and names, and has a very simple message: if you need an abortion, we will help you and protect you to the fullest extent possible.
It’s also remarkable to see all three governors together on this issue releasing the statement within two hours of the ruling. (In fairness, they were probably helped by the release of the draft opinion by Ginni Thomas...uh, a totally unknown person whose husband may or may not have written a court ruling on Thursday.) It shows a great degree of commitment on the issue and to each other as elected officials and residents of the states on the West Coast.
It’s the first statement of this sort I’ve ever seen. In these times and with this Supreme Court, it almost certainly won’t be the last.
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