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Rep. Jackie Speier was one of two U.S. representatives from the Bay Area who were among 17 members of Congress and 35 people overall who were arrested Tuesday afternoon during an abortion rights protest outside of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C.
Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, and Rep. Speier, D-San Francisco/San Mateo, were among those arrested as part of a group of demonstrators who were blocking a street near the Supreme Court building on Tuesday. Speier’s district includes a portion of Menlo Park and parts of Woodside, and runs from San Francisco south to East Palo Alto on the Midpeninsula and San Gregorio on the Coastside.
They were arrested on suspicion of crowding, obstructing or incommoding, according to U.S. Capitol Police.
The protest comes after last month’s Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which gave constitutional protections for pregnant people seeking an abortion across the nation and prompting some states to quickly ban abortions.
Lee wrote on social media in a post that shared photos, “One has a moral responsibility to push back against unjust laws. Today, I am standing up for reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy with the millions who have had their rights stripped away by inhumane policies.”
Speier wrote on Twitter, “I’ve never been arrested before but I can hear the late congressman John Lewis imploring me to get in good trouble. We must be willing to speak out for patients who have the right to health care, and the fundamental right to bodily autonomy.”
She also posted a video of her speaking at the protest, and chanting “We won’t go back.”
Other members of Congress arrested included Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, who shared on social media that Lee was the first person arrested at Tuesday’s demonstration and that the members of Congress made it back in time for votes on bills later in the day.
When I was in DC in November, I was proudly arrested with MLK III and family and others for “incommoding the National Park Service” for not leaving 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue while petitioning the President to work to end the filibuster of the Voting Rights Acts: then 2 bills but now combined into H.R. 5746: the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act, which continues to be filibustered by 52 Senators instead of their exercising their right under Article 1.4 of the US Constitution to set federal uniform standards for places, times and manner of voting. Congress could answer with impactful legislation the Supreme Court’s Plessy-like decisions including Shelby, Rucho and Brvovich AND stop voting suppression laws already passed by 19 states who have put up barriers to the ballot box and the integrity of our vote.
Good for Jackie Speier, a Congresswoman with spunk.
If only Senators Collins, Murkowski, Sinema, Manchin, Portman and Romney would be so loyal to their duty and their US Constitution pertaining to voting rights.
I suspect that this highly publicized protest by various congress persons was more along the lines of a symbolic political demonstration to procure media exposure and accompanying photo-ops.
It has more to do with promoting pro-choice election candidates in the upcoming midterm elections.
“Barbara Lee speaks for me” and all the others who were arrested in protesting the sham of a Supreme Court.
Thank you Jackie Speier too!
Symbolic, but necessary. EVERY congressperson should have been there, willing to be arrested. It’s not their cronies who struck down decades of law, it’s the SCOTUS. Anybody who opted out should be opted out in the voting booth next time they are up for re-election. And Manchin has got to go, regardless of where he pretends to stand on the issues.
If they’re serious about being pro-choice, then they should be working to pass legislation (i.e., their JOB) to give women the right to choose.
Instead, they’re focused on media opportunities.
What a joke.
The 2 are related, esp. since there’s already a few bills before Congress that would need GOP to support them. Without the publicity, there’s no chance of passage. And I wish the headlines would stop just mentioning abortion because they’re also working to limit access to contraception since some also consider the use of birth control to be abortion.
“House Passes Bill to Ensure Contraception Rights After Dobbs
The vote was mostly along party lines, with all but eight Republicans in opposition to a bill that aims to protect a right seen as newly at risk after the overturning of Roe v. Wade.”
From the New York Times (that’s only 8 (EIGHT) Republications
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/21/us/politics/house-contraception.html
:WASHINGTON — The House on Thursday passed legislation to ensure access to contraception nationwide, moving over almost unanimous Republican opposition to protect a right that is regarded as newly under threat after the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade.
**The measure is almost certain to fail in the evenly divided Senate, where most Republicans are also likely to be opposed. The vote was the latest election-year move by Democrats to draw a sharp distinction with Republicans on a social issue that has broad support.**
The measure passed 228 to 195, with eight Republicans joining Democrats in support…”
Fake news.