Reagan Dunn votes against reproductive rights as Democrats vow to make abortion care an issue in the 2022 midterms

Sen­a­tor Pat­ty Mur­ray stood in trade­mark ten­nis shoes in front of the Sen­ate cham­ber on Wednes­day, hands clasped behind her back as her Repub­li­can col­leagues blocked leg­is­la­tion to cod­i­fy Amer­i­cans’ right to abor­tion care.

A long­time cham­pi­on of pri­va­cy and health­care, Mur­ray has sought to orga­nize and gal­va­nize Sen­ate Democ­rats in push­ing abor­tion rights to cen­ter stage in America’s polit­i­cal debate, in wake of a leaked draft opin­ion in which a Supreme Court major­i­ty appears ready to over­turn the court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade deci­sion.

The wran­gling over abor­tion is the lat­est evi­dence of our polar­ized pol­i­tics. All fifty Repub­li­can sen­a­tors vot­ed to block the Wom­en’s Health Pro­tec­tion Act.

Only one Demo­c­rat, Sen­a­tor Joe Manchin of West Vir­ginia, joined them.

The Wash­ing­ton con­gres­sion­al del­e­ga­tion is like­wise split down par­ty lines. Even the two Repub­li­can House mem­bers who vot­ed to impeach Don­ald Trump and occa­sion­al­ly cross par­ty lines are firm­ly in the anti-abor­tion camp.

“Extreme politi­cians should not have a way in a woman’s per­son­al deci­sions about her fam­i­ly and future,” tweet­ed Mur­ray, post­ed as the Sen­ate pre­pared to vote.

But from Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Dan New­house, R‑Washington, under fire from the extrem­ist right for his Trump impeach­ment vote, came this mes­sage: “With the pos­si­ble Supreme Court over­turn­ing of Roe vs. Wade, will you join the fight for life?”

While the U.S. Sen­ate stood down, both King Coun­ty Coun­cil and Seat­tle City Coun­cil passed res­o­lu­tions endors­ing Roe and vow­ing to defend repro­duc­tive rights. After a grand total of twen­ty “where­as” claus­es, coun­ty law­mak­ers deliv­ered a mes­sage: “The coun­cil declares its sup­port of a woman’s right to repro­duc­tive free­dom and of Roe vs. Wade as set­tled law of the land.”

The lengthy res­o­lu­tion passed by an 8–1 mar­gin. The lone dis­senter was Coun­cilmem­ber Rea­gan Dunn, a Repub­li­can who is chal­leng­ing a vul­ner­a­ble Demo­c­rat, U.S. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Kim Schri­er, in the 8th Con­gres­sion­al District.

The dis­trict spans the Cas­cades, encom­pass­ing com­mu­ni­ties in east­ern Sno­homish, King, and Pierce coun­ties as well as Kit­ti­tas and Chelan coun­ties. It includes sub­ur­ban, exur­ban, and rur­al neighborhoods.

If you missed the movie “Twister,” watch what Dunn says and does on repro­duc­tive rights. His moth­er, the late Unit­ed States Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jen­nifer Dunn, who retired in 2004, was a Rea­gan Repub­li­can, but pro-choice.

Asked about his stand while greet­ing fel­low guests at the Slade Gor­ton memo­r­i­al ser­vice, Dunn said he “shares my mom’s posi­tion,” but with restrictions.

Schri­er, a pedi­a­tri­cian, has described the draft opin­ion by Supreme Court Jus­tice Samuel Ali­to as “a dark day for women, and shock­ing for women old­er than me who lived through a time when this right was not constitutional.”

Although named for America’s for­ti­eth pres­i­dent, Rea­gan Dunn faces Repub­li­can oppo­nents who are poised to argue that he is not con­ser­v­a­tive enough.

Attor­ney and 2020 Attor­ney Gen­er­al can­di­date Matt Larkin and 2020 Schri­er chal­lenger Jesse Jensen have both tak­en emphat­ic anti-abor­tion stands.

Wash­ing­ton vot­ed to legal­ize abor­tion in 1970, three years before Roe vs. Wade was decid­ed by the Unit­ed States Supreme Court, and strength­ened abor­tion rights in 1991. Hop­ing to make leg­isla­tive gains, and take Schrier’s House seat, Repub­li­cans are hyp­ing infla­tion and crime while giv­ing a back seat to cul­ture wars. Dunn has tak­en to pass­ing out “Re-fund the Police” stick­ers. Larkin ran videos of street vio­lence in tele­vi­sion ads against incum­bent Bob Ferguson.

While forc­ing mem­bers of the Sen­ate to take a stand, the Democ­rats’ response to Alito’s blunt opin­ion destroy­ing Roe has lacked coor­di­na­tion and effectiveness.

The right wing has coa­lesced behind a par­ty line of being shocked – shocked!!! – that the opin­ion leaked, and denounc­ing pro-choice protests as row­dy and threat­en­ing. Mur­doch’s FNC has ban­nered protests at Catholic Churches.

“Where the hell is my par­ty? Where is the coun­terof­fen­sive?” asked California’s Demo­c­ra­t­ic Gov­er­nor Gavin New­som, announc­ing mea­sures to defend repro­duc­tive rights in his state.

Next door in Neva­da, Sen­a­tor Cather­ine Cortez Mas­to is up for reelec­tion this year and is among the Democ­rats’ most endan­gered incumbents.

Which is where Mur­ray comes in. She is more insu­lar than the “mom in ten­nis shoes” we elect­ed thir­ty years ago, and faces a vig­or­ous, vocif­er­ous chal­lenge from Repub­li­can Tiffany Smi­ley, a for­mer nurse and vet­er­ans advo­cate from Pas­co. Smi­ley has declared her­self both “pro-life” and “pro-woman” but recent­ly told the Seat­tle Times that the issue of repro­duc­tive rights isn’t rel­e­vant to the Sen­ate race because Wash­ing­ton vot­ers have already spoken.

Mur­ray has been an ener­getic, pas­sion­ate advo­cate on issues of women’s health. The first Sen­ate speech she ever gave was ovar­i­an can­cer and the need for com­mit­ment of fed­er­al dol­lars.  She has used news con­fer­ences, often held at Planned Parenthood’s clin­ic on Madi­son Street, to decry Repub­li­cans’ pro­posed abor­tion restric­tions and anti-choice nom­i­nees to the Supreme Court.

Mur­ray is report­ed­ly work­ing with col­leagues on strate­gies for keep­ing the choice issue front and cen­ter. An ally from this Wash­ing­ton, Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Suzan Del­Bene, took aim at Alito’s opin­ion this week, say­ing: “The dis­dain and dis­re­spect for women is pal­pa­ble through­out the draft deci­sion and we can­not allow our coun­try – that was found­ed on free­dom and lib­er­ty – to fall backward.”

A new CBS News poll has shown that Amer­i­cans, by a two-to-one mar­gin, sup­port the Roe vs. Wade deci­sion — even as thir­teen Repub­li­can-run states have enact­ed “trig­ger” laws spec­i­fy­ing that abor­tion will imme­di­ate­ly become ille­gal if the Supreme Court toss­es out the half-cen­tu­ry-old ruling.

Sen­ate Minor­i­ty Leader Mitch McConnell has hint­ed that fed­er­al leg­is­la­tion may be in the off­ing if Repub­li­cans take con­trol of the Sen­ate and House.

“Repub­li­cans want a ban on abor­tion,” Sen­a­tor Maria Cantwell said in a Sen­ate speech this week.  “And if the Supreme Court and Sen­ate Repub­li­cans have their way, they will suc­ceed.”  The Repub­li­can Par­ty, she added, would yank repro­duc­tive health care back to “the Dark Ages.”

In Repub­li­can-con­trolled states, per­haps, but not all… at least not right away.

In his draft opin­ion, author and Bush appointee Samuel Ali­to said deci­sions on repro­duc­tive rights should go back to states and leg­is­la­tures. The opin­ion offers a bit of an “out” to our state’s Repub­li­cans, who can – and do – argue that the issue is set­tled here, abor­tion will remain legal, and “noth­ing will change.”

Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers, R‑Washington, spoke at abor­tion oppo­nents’ annu­al March on Wash­ing­ton in Jan­u­ary. After the pub­li­ca­tion of the Ali­to opin­ion, she told KHQ in Spokane: “I would like to see a pro­tec­tion of life. I believe life should be pro­tect­ed.  I’d like to see each state make the deci­sion, I’m pleased that the court is review­ing (Roe vs. Wade).”

If Roe goes, the Inland Empire – which McMor­ris Rodgers rep­re­sents in Con­gress — may become a des­ti­na­tion and refuge for peo­ple seek­ing abor­tions in East­ern Wash­ing­ton when abor­tion becomes ille­gal in Ida­ho, Mon­tana, Utah, and beyond.

Not if Sen­a­tor Mur­ray can help it.

Mur­ray is ener­gized, but faces the chal­lenge of ener­giz­ing America’s voters.