SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – Retiring Bay Area Rep. Jackie Speier will wear the first arrest of her congressional career "a badge of honor" after she was taken into custody during an abortion rights protest on Tuesday.
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The U.S. Capitol Police arrested the seven-term congresswoman, 16 other Democratic representatives – including Oakland Rep. Barbara Lee and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – and 18 other protestors for blocking traffic outside of the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
Speier and a number of the protestors wore green bandanas to signify their support for abortion rights, demonstrating outside of the Supreme Court in light of its 5-4 ruling last month overturning constitutional protections for abortion.
The 72-year-old, who represents part of San Francisco and San Mateo counties, told KCBS Radio's Patti Reising and Kris Ankarlo that the "egregious" and "unjust" decision compelled Speier and her colleagues to protest on Tuesday, and she wants "to protect the women and girls who come after me."
"All of us feel very strongly that this is the first time in the history of our country that we've had rights taken away from the American people, and this one is so egregious that it really calls on us to engage in what we consider to be acts of civil disobedience that are nonviolent," Speier said Tuesday afternoon.
The House of Representatives voted last week to pass the Women's Health Protection Act of 2022, which would codify the protections established in the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and affirmed in 1992's Planned Parenthood v. Casey ruling. The Supreme Court overturned both last month in a 5-4 opinion as part of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a San Francisco Democrat, also set a vote this week on the Right to Contraception Act, which would enshrine the 1965 Griswold v. Connecticut ruling, which barred states from banning purchases of contraceptives. It follows Tuesday vote in which the House, with bipartisan support, passed a bill providing federal protections for same-sex and interracial marriages.
In a concurring opinion with last month's ruling, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas suggested the court "should reconsider" the Griswold decision, as well as two others that barred states from restricting same-sex marriages and relationships. He didn't mention Loving v. Virginia, a 1967 ruling protecting interracial marriages, but Democrats have nonetheless feared its overturning.
"I feel very strongly that my daughter does not have the same rights that I had when I was in my 20s, and that's wrong," Speier, who was 22 when the Supreme Court issued its Roe v. Wade ruling, said on Tuesday.
Speier admitted that Democrats face an uphill battle getting these bills signed into law. The House passed similar measures surrounding abortion rights and contraception last year, but the Senate never took a single vote on the latter.
Republicans filibustered the former measure earlier this year, with 46 of the necessary 60 senators voting to end debate on the bill and advance it to a formal vote.
Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have publicly said they oppose removing the filibuster under any circumstances, including a carve-out for abortion rights. California Sen. Dianne Feinstein said this month she would support such an exception.
Speier said Democrats need to add two more Senators to their majority this fall and, in the words of late civil rights activist and Georgia Rep. John Lewis, get into "good trouble" advocating for abortion rights. She considered Tuesday's arrest as much, saying Lewis' example as a sit-in organizer and Freedom Rider inspired her and her colleagues.
"We really have our work cut out for us," Speier told Reising and Ankarlo. "But we're not gonna settle, and we're not gonna be quiet."
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