Since Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, Washington has remained one state that hasn't enacted a total or near-total abortion ban—but that doesn't mean Dobbs didn't have an impact. A study from May showed out-of-state abortion patients have increased by 50% since 2022, stretching an already strained health system thinner.
This has all come to a head in the state's gubernatorial race, which is more competitive than you’d expect. On one side we have Democrat Bob Ferguson, the current state attorney general who, in 2023, led other state attorneys general to challenge a federal court ruling that nearly decimated access to medication abortion. And on the other, we have Republican Dave Reichert, a former Congressman from 2005 to 2019 who voted in line with Donald Trump about 93% of the time. Polling from the last couple of months puts Ferguson between four and 16 points ahead of Reichert.
This week, Reichert escalated his denial that he doesn’t support an abortion ban, as well as his claim that he’s never supported one—despite voting three separate times for a 20-week national ban in Congress in 2013, 2015, and 2017. (To be clear, a 20-week ban carries disparate harm for people with especially desperate circumstances, from medical emergencies to severe delays in access to care.)
Like JD Vance lying at the vice presidential debate that he doesn’t support a national ban but a “minimum national standard,” Reichert put his own spin on things. “It is not fair to say that I voted for a ban three times in Congress. I did not vote for a ban on abortion,” he told local news station KIRO 7 on Thursday. He instead supports "providing women with abortion options up to 20 weeks,” as he puts it on his website. That… isn’t how this works! You can’t just support an abortion ban and claim it’s not a ban because you’re “providing women with options” up until so-and-so weeks.
In July, in a Ron DeSantis-esque move that’s proven just as ineffective, Reichert’s campaign sent a cease-and-desist letter to a local TV station for running one of Ferguson’s ads which points to Reichert’s votes for a national abortion ban. In the bizarre letter, Reichert says the ad contains false, damaging information because Reichert has publicly said, “As governor, I will not change Washington laws on this issue.” And, Reichert’s team wrote, national “regulations” on abortion at 20 weeks aren’t a “ban.” Even more odd, the letter seemingly compares the so-called “regulations” Reichert supports to… driver’s licenses and hunting laws:
“Each of these bills [the 20-week bans] regulated abortion, but none of them banned or outlawed the procedure any more than driver age limits or restricting hunting and fishing to certain seasons is a ban on hunting and fishing.”
I can’t grasp what has to go through one’s head to compare abortion laws to the law that says you have to be 16 to get a driver's license, or one that states what time of year you can hunt. It would almost be funny if it didn’t betray such a dangerously misogynistic, even fascistic understanding of bodily autonomy, as if the government can dictate pregnant people's bodies like it dictates hunting season.
Anti-choice Republican Dave Reichert voted 3 times for nationwide abortion bans that criminalized doctors. He would've banned abortions that are legal in Washington.
That's just one example of what the Tri-City Herald editorial board called his "solidly conservative" record. https://t.co/qdTxV9wlOW
— Bob Ferguson (@BobFergusonAG) October 17, 2024
Elsewhere in Washington, the Republican nominee for the state's third Congressional district Joe Kent has also insisted this cycle that he won't support a national abortion ban, despite saying point-blank in 2022, "I would move to have a national ban on abortions." And at a debate on Monday, Kent, who's previously, repeatedly compared abortion to slavery, appeared to set the stage to support an abortion ban, dismissing the life-threatening harm these laws have inflicted on pregnant people at the state level in nearby Idaho: "Abortion is not on the ballot at the federal level," he said.
This is all Republicans—especially in blue states like Washington—have on abortion: denial. Reichert also told KIRO 7 on Thursday that he “voted and always supported” exceptions to abortion bans. Yet, Reichert voted against adding amendments to the proposed 20-week national bans in 2015 and 2017 that would have added exceptions to protect the pregnant person’s health.
Even Reichert’s claim in the cease-and-desist letter that he “will not change Washington’s laws on this issue” doesn’t seem true. At a town hall event in August, hosted by the anti-abortion group Firmly Planted Action, Reichert encouraged supporters to push the government "toward unraveling" state funding for Planned Parenthood. He's also accepted donations from the chairman of Family Policy Institute of Washington, an anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ group that celebrated the Dobbs ruling as a “monumental victory.”
I also don’t find Reichert particularly trustworthy on any of this. In addition to his votes for a national abortion ban and votes against adding medical emergency exceptions to these bills, he voted repeatedly to restrict access to contraception, as recently as 2018. He also voted against bills to protect employees from discrimination for having abortions or using birth control, repeatedly voted against federally funding reproductive health care, and voted to criminalize helping minors seek abortion care.
Even if you did choose to take a Republican who’s thrice voted for a national abortion ban at his word, not legislating on abortion right now is still actively harmful. Washington is navigating a surge in out-of-state abortion patients, including from its neighbor, Idaho, which holds one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the nation and has lost at least a quarter of its OBGYNs since 2022.
Last week, FiveThirtyEight put Ferguson about 15 points ahead of Reichert. But just last month, polls had Ferguson up just four points. So, it’s certainly worth keeping an eye on the race, especially given the ramifications for abortion access in the entire region if Reichert pulls off an upset. I’m reminded of the 2022 race for governor in Oregon, which, like Washington, is considered a dependably blue state. In the final months of the campaign trail, then-Democratic candidate Tina Kotek found herself running neck-and-neck with her Republican opponent, as an Independent candidate split some of the vote share. Abortion similarly remained legal in Oregon, but access to the health service had become increasingly strained by out-of-state abortion seekers pouring in from Idaho. Kotek wound up winning her race by about 3 points.
At a debate this week, Reichert said, “I will protect your rights ladies. You have the right to make that choice.” That… is unhelpful. Actions, after all, speak louder than words: Just last week, Ferguson took yet another action to try to increase access to abortion, filing a legal motion that calls on the FDA to lift medically unnecessary requirements placed on pharmacies and providers to prescribe medication abortion. Reichert hasn't addressed the issue.
