A RESOLUTION in support of the right to bodily autonomy and the right to access a safe and legal abortion; and affirming The City of Seattle’s commitment to act consistently and proactively in support of those rights.
Bill passed show sign it. Please read the first agenda item. From the amended agenda. New Agenda Item one Resolution 31889. In support of a woman's rights to bodily autonomy and the right to access a safe and legal abortion. And affirming the city's sales commitment to act consistently and proactively in support of those rights. Castro Gonzalez. Thank you. Council President I'd like to start by requesting that the council rule. I would like to request that the council rules be suspended to allow consideration of a substitute to Resolution 3189, which has been distributed to the Council and should have been at your seats when you arrived this afternoon. It's been moved and seconded that we suspend the rules in order to consider this. And I think there was a. But a change that would suggest that we suspend the race. I certainly support that. All those in favor of suspending the rules, please. What I. I oppose the ayes have the rules are suspended. Councilmember Gonzales. Great. And so I'm going to speak to some of the changes that we made to Resolution 3189 that required us to go through that substitution process. We had an opportunity to share a draft of Resolution 31889 with representatives of both Nero, pro-choice and Planned Parenthood. Got some feedback and incorporated that feedback. So the substitution version that you have before you, which should be version D four, incorporates many of those changes. Primarily, what we did is change the recitals to to reflect a more gender inclusive aspect to the language of the resolution. So I want to thank our partners over at Planned Parenthood for their thoughtful addition and modifications to the underlying resolution. In essence, what this resolution does, and I know many of us were at the rally on Tuesday last week that was organized by Nero, pro-choice, Planned Parenthood and others. And I know we have representatives from natural pro-choice here in the audience. So thank you, ladies and everybody else for being with us. Really appreciate it. And you know, really what I think is important for us is to affirm our ongoing city's commitment to ensure that all of the investments that we're making and all of the policies that we're supporting, both here at home and abroad, are consistent with what I believe the vast majority of our constituents believe, which is that people deserve the right to have bodily autonomy and the right to access safe and legal abortions. A lot of us had an opportunity to speak at last Tuesday's rally and really take a strong, firm statement on how the city of Seattle will continue to stand in solidarity, not just with the people here seeking a right to bodily autonomy, but everywhere and anywhere in this country and in this world. And we are seeing a lot of incredibly scary laws coming out of other states that effectively ban safe and legal access to abortions. That is really, really dangerous. And we should make no we should make no mistake of it. It is a direct attack on the reproductive rights and on the movement for reproductive justice for all people. And I feel really strongly that this is a good use of our time and a important policy statement for us to make on the record, to continue to stand in solidarity with people across the country who aren't as fortunate to live in a state like Washington and in a city like Seattle that really has spent a considerable amount of time prioritizing the rights of bodily autonomy and to reproductive justice. And and I mentioned this morning at council briefing that one of the things that we do here at the city of Seattle is that we partner with King County Public Health to deliver services in the space of reproductive health. And so we do have a stake in the game here. If Roe versus Wade were to be overturned, that would create significant questions in terms of how we deliver public health services to people in our county and in our city in the space of reproductive health. So I feel really strongly that it's important for us to share our position with our congressional leaders and with our community that we will continue to stand firm in this in this movement for reproductive justice. Thank you, Councilman Gonzalez. Councilman Bagshaw. Yes, thank you. And thank you so much for your leadership. The words that you have given us and all of just the stalwarts that you are both personally and over the years. I really respect that and I want to acknowledge one of the sentences here that I feel so strongly about, Councilmember Gonzales, for your leadership. And this statement is at the bottom of page two, where it says policymakers should instead focus on the maintenance and expansion of supportive services, whose aim is the reduction of unintended pregnancies, the minimization of sexual violence, and the success of all families by investing in comprehensive sex education, access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care, and quality , affordable child care. Now, this all makes so much sense to me. I am completely appalled that we have a president that is trying to roll back all of the gains that have been made. But if nothing else, if you want to stop a procedure that you feel strongly about, then for goodness sakes, make these kinds of investments in child care and in comprehensive contraception and make that available to everyone. Most recently, I was talking with someone from our public health department about larks, the long acting reversible contraceptives, how important this is for women. To have access to and talk about one of the best investments that we can make for people who need this kind of work. So I'm kind of kind of help and support. I also want to acknowledge Seattle Public Schools and our Department of Early Education. We put money in to support the Nova School. NOVA needed to have a and still does need to have a health care facility on site. And I want to recognize that we can be partners with Seattle Public Schools. All of you that are here, this is incredibly important. Of course, the the work that we're doing around Roe v Wade is critical. But I'm just like so strongly in support of making contraceptives available to everybody who needs them and to have that support . So thank you and thanks for your leadership on that. Thank you. Thank you. Councilman Bagshaw. Any other comments? Councilmember Mesquita. Thank you, Mr. President. And thank you, Councilmember Gonzales, for bringing this forward and to the folks that they were all in Planned Parenthood for your commitment to this issue. We talked about this last week. We've talked about this the last year. We've talked about this the last few decades that women's health care is health care. And we need to stop passing out reproductive health care from actual health care, because comprehensive health care should include access to contraception and abortion services to make sure that health care is truly comprehensive. I think one important note from last week was that I got some pushback for using the word control, though this is about control, and we should have no doubt in our minds that those who are pushing the legislation that this resolution comments on in other cities and in other states, that this is about control and control over our body is control over our destiny and control over our economic stability, control over our self-determination. And those who are pushing this agenda to restrict our access to choice are, quite frankly, doing this at the very time when women are continuing to speak up, people who are identifying as female continue to speak up for our rights. And in many ways they can't stand it that we're speaking up, speaking truth to power, and then sitting in seats of power. So this should be a simple signal that we will not sit down, stay quiet or shut up. This is about health care. This is about public health. This is about justice. And I'm incredibly proud of our city. And for all of you who have been advancing this call for action for not only the last few years that we've seen more and more attacks against health care access, but also for the incredible tenacity that it's taken for decades of work, for us to continue to stand on the shoulders of those who've come before us to fight for access to comprehensive health care. One additional note that I'll make, as Councilmember Gonzales mentioned, our partnership with Public Health, Seattle King County, and as we continue to stand up and act as a sanctuary city here and a sanctuary area, part of what I think we will be called upon to do is provide sanctuary to providers. And I have no doubt that this city and this county stand ready to offer that sanctuary to individuals in need of health care, but also to the providers who we so desperately need as well. Looking forward to working with all of you as we continue to stand up for this basic human right and access to health care. Thank you. Councilmember Mesquita, Councilmember O'Brien. Thank you. And I also think, Councilmember Gonzales, for your leadership on this and thank my colleagues who have spoken on this. And it is maddening that we're that in 2019, we're still having the discussion and feels like we're losing ground. I'm honored to be part of a body that has fought for these rights for so long and stood up for them. And I want to concur with Councilmember Skate. His comments about this is about control. It is maddening to watch male dominated legislative bodies around the country spend an inordinate amount of time trying to pass legislation to control the rights and the ability of women to choose what they do with their body and while at the same time completely ignoring the other side of the equation and how health care for men plays out. And that hypocrisy has to stop and we need to get to a fair system. Unfortunately, the way things are in some states in our country and at the national level, we will likely be having these conversations for a while at City Council, but I'm grateful that they're amazing leaders here to do that work, including community members who continue to make sure that we understand the dynamic out there. So thank you. Thank you. Castro and Brian Councilmember Herbold. Thank you. I just want to add my thanks to Councilmember Oregon. It is not. My thanks to but my thanks for Councilmember Gonzalez's efforts in this area, as well as the efforts of community organizations like Planned Parenthood in their role. Every few years, we here on the council pass resolutions in support. Court of 1973, Roe versus Wade, and our stating our ongoing commitment to the principles in that in that ruling. And often we are attacked by observers of council activities as saying that we are taking symbolic gestures that don't have meaning. And the fact that we are here today and we are faced with these draconian laws being considered in states of our union, says to me that the actions and the vigilance of organizations like yours on these issues is not symbolic. It's incredibly meaningful. And it's so important that we keep our eyes on the ball and that we stand strong in favor of women's right to choose, and that we recognize that this is actually, in fact, all about control. So thank you so much for your work on these issues. Thank you, Councilman Herbold. Okay. If I think the way we'll proceed is I'll actually move it. And then once it's moved in second and then I'll ask Councilwoman Gonzalez potentially a minute to substitute the version five for four. Okay. So I'm going to move the resolution as originally presented. Is there a second? Okay. And. So now all energy and emotion comes from Bazaar for a substitution. Thank you. I moved to amend resolution 3189 by substituting version five eight for version for a second. For sorry, it's just version four. Okay, so we're just voting on the motion to substitute version five, a four version for all those in favor of the substitution, please. What I, I opposed the ayes have it. So now we have a substituted version. We are a vote for customer anxiety. As you want to close debate, are we ready to vote? I would I just wanted to close with one point of information that occurred to me as folks were providing their comments in support of this resolution, which I really appreciate. And so one of the things that I wanted to point out is that even though we are seeing state legislatures across the state passing these draconian laws that would severely limit access to health care for certain people in those states, I also want to remind folks that here in the state of Washington, although those efforts have not been successful, they are still very much attempted every single year. And so this is an incredibly relevant issue for us as representatives of of of the most populated city in the state. And I will remind folks that just this last regular session right here in the state of Washington, there was the introduction of House Bill 2154 in the state legislature that would have, in effect, prohibited and banned abortions right here in our own state. And it would have also criminalized any provision of those services. And so, you know, it is very similar to the law that was just recently passed out of the Alabama state legislature. And so I want to make really clear that these attempts are are movements from the other side that are designed to chip away at the right to bodily autonomy. And certainly here in the state of Washington, we currently enjoy the privilege of being able to fight against those the successful passage of these draconian laws. But we have to continue to be vigilant and and to continue to take really strong positions. And as the city of Seattle, we are, I like to believe, a city of influence on our colleagues in the state legislature on these types of issues. And so I think it's absolutely important for us to continue to speak up and to also remember that we are not immune from these sentiments and this ideology in our very own state and in our own legislature. So, so really proud to be able to take a final vote on this resolution. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Gonzalez. Okay. I'm going to call on the vote. Those in favor of adopting Resolution 31889 as amended. Please vote I. I oppose vote no. The motion carries. The resolution stopped. And Cheryl, sign it, actually. Please read the next agenda item.