Members of the Washington State Legislature finally managed to wake from their stupor, pass a budget, and put an end to the special session last week. Meanwhile, they let two important bills for women die.
First: a bill that would have required insurance companies to cover a year’s worth of birth control at once. Medicaid already covers a year of contraception in Washington; this would have extended that benefit to all insured women in the state. But after it overwhelmingly passed the state house, senate leadership failed to bring it up for a vote. (Planned Parenthood complained that senators also added “poison pill” amendments that would have cut funding to Planned Parenthood.)
Second: a bill to require businesses to provide accommodations for pregnant workers. After this one passed the house, the senate watered it down, the house added back in some of the things senators had removed, and then the senate failed to bring that version up for a vote. Rachel Berkson, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Washington, which supported the bill, said “businesses interests really won out” in that fight.
The thing is: Neither of these bills are all that radical and both had early bipartisan support. What happened?
“I’ve been trying to make sense of this in my head,” Berkson told me shortly after the session ended. This session was different than past years, she said. “It seemed like Republicans knew they couldn’t just explicitly be terrible to women… They had a sense of the electorate. They knew they were out of step with the public if weren’t supporting things like pregnant workers’ rights.”
“But at the end of the day,” Berkson said, “they weren’t really willing to go to the mat.”
“Even good ideas can’t get appropriate hearings today,” said Chris Charbonneau, CEO of Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest and the Hawaiian Islands. “It just doesn’t make any sense to make something like contraception harder to get.”
Meanwhile, far-right Republicans introduced draconian and racist anti-choice legislation. Their efforts ultimately failed, but they seemed “emboldened,” Berkson said.
So, what can we do about it? I’ll say it again: Take back the state senate. Republicans have a slim majority with 25 seats to Democrats’ 24. (One “Democrat,” Tim Sheldon, caucuses with Republicans to effectively create a 26–23 Republican majority.) But at least two of those Republicans are vulnerable: Steve O’Ban (University Place) and Steve Litzow (Mercer Island).
Litzow positions himself as a moderate and sometimes he does OK—he even co-sponsored the senate versions of the bills above—but advocates say he doesn’t fight for bills like these after they’re introduced. (Plus, caucusing with Republicans helps give them the majority, which allows them to chair committees and decide which bills get a vote.) A Democrat hasn’t yet announced a run against Litzow, but Jamal Raad, a spokesperson for the state Democratic Party, says a candidate will be announcing “very soon.” O’Ban, meanwhile, is no moderate. He has cosponsored bills requiring parental notification for abortion and repealing protections for trans people. O’Ban has a challenger already: Marisa Peloquin, a Democrat, Army veteran, and “marketing analyst.”
Democrats are also hoping to unseat Republican Senator Barbara Bailey in the 10th district (Oak Harbor), where her opponent Angie Homola has criticized her for, among other things, failing to strengthen equal pay laws. And Democrats will be fighting for at least two open seats.
Neither Peloquin nor Homola give any indication on their websites of their positions on abortion, contraception, or accommodations for pregnant workers; I’ve reached out to their campaigns to ask. It’s worth waiting to see whether these Democrats come out strongly in favor of women’s choice—Dems can be just as spineless and timid as Republicans sometimes—but here’s hoping they will. And if they do, Seattlites who care about these issues should be there to support them.
As I wrote before:
This spring, once Democrats announce in all these races, Seattle progressives should invest their money and time in races in these swing districts. If you can’t make it out to one of these districts, ask the campaigns about phone banks. If you’re from one of these areas—if you grew up in Puyallup or Vancouver before fleeing to Seattle—talk to your family members who will be voting in that race; annoy your hometown friends on social media. There’s no use spending all of your time and money sending your favorite Seattle progressive back to Olympia just to be kneecapped by a Republican majority.
Hate the anti-abortion bills Republicans introduce year after year? Hate this year’s attacks on trans people? Hate that anti-tax, anti-transit, anti-labor legislators get to make laws for you? You can put a stop to it—by helping to take the state senate.
