FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 25, 2024
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20 OBGYNs, Family Care Providers Slam Dave Reichert for Lying About His Votes to Ban Abortion Nationwide
“…under [Reichert’s] leadership, Washingtonians would be stripped away of their fundamental right to reproductive healthcare, harming patients, providers, and their families.”
Seattle, WA — In an open letter to Dave Reichert, 20 OBGYNs and family care practitioners call out the former congressman for the three times he voted to ban abortion nationwide and restrict access to birth control. The letter expresses their concern that throughout his gubernatorial campaign, Reichert has repeatedly lied about his anti-abortion voting record.
According to the health care providers, Reichert’s votes to ban abortion would have “limite[d] [their] ability to do [their] jobs safely and responsibly and [put] pregnant people’s health and lives at risk.” The providers also state that Reichert’s votes and willingness to lie about his record “give [them] every indication that [he has] no plans to protect and expand reproductive rights in Washington should [he] be elected and are a stark reminder of the dangers of political interference in personal healthcare decisions between patients and providers.”
Throughout his campaign, Reichert has tried repeatedly to mislead voters on where he stands on reproductive rights, even comparing the national abortion bans he supported to “hunting regulations.” But in April, at his first town hall in years, he joined Firmly Planted Action, an anti-abortion extremist group that wants to “END ABORTION once and for all.” There, he told his supporters how they could “unravel” affordable abortion services in Washington State.
Read the full letter here.
Reichert’s anti-choice congressional votes include:
- Voting for three national abortion bans (October 2017, May 2015, and June 2013) that would have imposed criminal penalties on physicians who violated the ban with a maximum five-year jail sentence.
- Voting AGAINST several pieces of legislation that protected women from being fired at work for getting an abortion or using birth control.
- Voting nearly twenty times to block federal funding for Planned Parenthood and affordable abortion services.
- Voting to allow health care providers to deny abortions in 2016.
- Voting to make it a crime to help abortion-seeking minors travel across state lines to avoid parental notification laws.
- Voting repeatedly to restrict access to contraception, including as recently as 2018.
To learn more about the real Dave Reichert, visit ReichertRevealed.com.
The Washington State Democratic Party is committed to advancing progressive policy, empowering the grassroots, and ensuring Democratic victories up and down the ballot. Chair of the Washington Democrats, Shasti Conrad, is the first Indian-American woman to chair a major state party.
