FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 28, 2024
Contact: [email protected]
REMINDER: Dave Reichert’s Anti-Abortion Record Threatens Washingtonians’ Reproductive Rights
Seattle, WA — Just a little more than a week away from Election Day, Dave Reichert continues to lie about his anti-abortion record in an attempt to mislead voters and, ultimately, insert his extreme views into the personal health care decisions between a woman and her provider.
Unfortunately for Reichert, his recent missteps and congressional votes are enough for Washingtonians to know he can’t be trusted to protect reproductive rights in our state.
As voters fill out their ballots this and next week, here’s a reminder of Reichert’s extreme track record on the issue:
IN APRIL, REICHERT TOLD HIS SUPPORTERS BEHIND CLOSED DOORS HOW TO GET RID OF AFFORDABLE ABORTION SERVICES IN WASHINGTON.
Reichert hasn’t changed since his time in Congress. As reported this year by KUOW, in April, Reichert chose to hold his first town hall in years with 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. Reichert has since doubled down on his support for Firmly Planted Action, attending another campaign event hosted by the extremist group just last week.
REICHERT’S WEIRD AND OFFENSIVE ATTEMPTS TO DEFEND HIS VOTES TO BAN ABORTION SHOW HE HASN’T CHANGED.
Throughout his gubernatorial campaign, Reichert has repeatedly lied about the three times he voted to ban abortion nationwide, even trying – and failing – to pull an ad about his unpopular votes off the air. In his most insulting attempt to rewrite history, Reichert compared the bans he voted for to “hunting regulations.” Tell that to the women miscarrying in hospital parking lots.
IN CONGRESS, REICHERT LED A DECADES-LONG WAR ON REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM.
Reichert’s attempts to “[cynically] rebrand” himself this year make sense when you look at his voting record – after all, there’s a reason The Seattle Times called Reichert an “anti-abortion stalwart” during his time in Congress. From supporting a nationwide abortion ban (three times!) to voting nearly 20 times to defund Planned Parenthood, Reichert led a decades-long war attacking reproductive freedom.
Reichert’s Congressional record includes:
- 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.
