Dr. Nancy Connolly, MD is running for State Representative in order to represent Seattle citizens living in the 46th District.
You can spot her in the featured photo. She is in the top row holding the sign.
Click here to see the KING TV proprietary videos of this event.
By David Gutmaan, Joseph O’Sullivan and Sarah Grace Taylor
“Reading a draft Supreme Court opinion that portends the potential end of legal abortion in much of the United States, Jennifer Martinez said to herself that people need to hear stories like hers.
So Martinez, 34 years old and 39 weeks pregnant, stood in Seattle in front of the governor, attorney general, members of Congress, dozens of cameras and hundreds of others and talked about the two abortions she had 13 years ago.
“I was not ready to be a parent,” said Martinez, who lives in Olympia, works in marketing and is the board president of Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates. “I was in a new relationship, not financially stable and I was most definitely not emotionally prepared.”
Her decision, Martinez said, was both intimate and huge and not one that can be made by elected officials or the courts.
“I’m not unique,” she said. “It’s something that we’re not supposed to talk about, or just kind of sweep under the rug when so many of us have this shared experience.”
Martinez spoke at a quickly organized Tuesday rally with many of Washington’s top elected leaders who raged against the leaked draft of a Supreme Court decision, promised that abortion would remain legal in Washington and pledged that women from more conservative states could travel here for abortions.
Washington’s Democratic leaders pleaded with voters for support and promised to fight, even as there is no immediate avenue to counteract a ruling that, if finalized, would spell the end of Roe v. Wade.
Others, like Martinez, spoke about the abortions they’d had.
“Washington state was a pro-choice state, Washington state is a pro-choice state, and we are going to fight like hell to keep Washington a pro-choice state,” Gov. Jay Inslee said at the rally at Seattle’s Kerry Park.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday confirmed that the draft opinion, published Monday night by Politico, was authentic, but stressed it is not a final decision and does not represent “the final position of any member.”
If Roe is ultimately overturned, abortion will remain legal in Washington.
Washington has, for more than three decades, guaranteed abortion access, regardless of the status of Roe. Initiative 120, passed narrowly by voters in 1991, stated that “Every woman has the fundamental right to choose or refuse to have an abortion” before viability.”
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