WA Rep. Kilmer: Roe v. Wade recognized ‘women’s reproductive rights are basic rights’

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a case that could have sweeping consequences for abortion rights in dozens of states. In particular, the tenor of the arguments from some of the justices has a lot of people worried that they will overturn Roe v. Wade.

“I share that concern based on the arguments,” Washington Rep. Derek Kilmer said on Seattle’s Morning News. “It sure seemed as though a lot of the questions were heading in that direction.”

‘I am appalled’: State leaders react as Supreme Court weighs challenge to abortion laws

But many argue that overturning Roe v. Wade would not end abortions in states like Washington, which have codified it.

If you allow the red states who want to impose this restriction on their own people, KIRO Radio Dave Ross says maybe that would lower the temperature of the political debate.

“If you want to trace when the Republicans and Democrats started going at each other’s throats, it goes back to 1973, where this was just something that many conservatives just could not compromise on,” Dave said. “So why not let conservative states do conservative stuff, and liberal states do at least some liberal stuff, and save the national legislation for the things that we all agree on?”

“I think part of the value of the Roe v. Wade decision is that it recognized that women’s reproductive rights are basic rights that ought to be protected under the Constitution,” Kilmer replied. “Listen, you’ve seen some states that have created some specific laws around how those Constitutional rights can be exercised. But that basic notion that if you are an American — no matter where you live — that you won’t see access to women’s reproductive services criminalized, I think is important.”

A bill called the Women’s Health Protection Act is trying to prevent these restrictions seen in some state legislatures, Kilmer noted.

“I think it’s important for these decisions to be made by women and their health care providers, and for them to have the freedom to do that without politicians trying to control what they do,” he said.

Build Back Better

Kilmer also spoke about the Build Back Better bill, which now has to go to the Senate, but then may come back to the House. What are the chances of that finally seeing the light of day?

“The hope is that we’ll see some action in the Senate, hopefully before the holidays. If that does occur, my expectation is the House will go back and adopt any changes that were developed in the Senate,” Kilmer said.

“Obviously a lot of the attention is on the process here, but I do think it’s important to just recognize what this bill is about,” he continued. “This is about giving middle class families a break. We’ve seen far too many people struggling far too much, as a consequence of the pandemic — but even before the pandemic, people struggling with the cost of child care. I can’t tell you how many working parents and particularly working moms I’ve talked to who’ve just really felt sidelined in our economy because they didn’t have access to affordable child care. This bill is about trying to address that.”

WA Rep. Kilmer: American people ‘justifiably frustrated’ by inaction in Congress

Republicans, Dave says, have expressed concern about the pressure of rising prices, especially gas prices. A report from the Congressional Budget Office said it wouldn’t be horribly inflationary, but the bill would put upward pressure on prices.

“I think it’s important to look at two things,” Kilmer said in reply. “One, independent economic analyses — Moody’s Analytics put out a report saying not only would the Build Back Better act spur economic growth, that it would ease inflation. Why does it do that? Well, part of it is one of the big drivers of inflation right now is rising labor costs. This bill would improve labor force participation.”

“When you make investments in child care, you’re able to get more people back into the workforce. When you expand the earned income tax credit, which is a tax credit that’s really designed around making work pay for low-wage workers, that gets more people into the labor force,” he explained. “You have independent analyses saying that this is good for jobs and that this is good for lowering business costs. But the second piece of this that I think is worth recognizing is it is a problem when people aren’t able to afford the things they need.”

The Build Back Better act, Kilmer says, is really about providing help with that — by lowering the cost of child care, and by expanding financial aid for people who want to go to college or a training program.

“In our region, we’ve seen tremendous challenges with regard to housing affordability, and this bill would make the most significant investment in affordable housing in our nation’s history,” he added.

“Even things like the child tax credit, that is a tax credit that — as we’ve seen with the passage of the American Rescue Plan earlier this year — is expected to cut childhood poverty by 40% in this country this year. And the studies that have looked at how are those dollars used? They’re used to do things like buy food, and fill the gas tank, and things like that. So if there is concern about rising prices, one of the values of the Build Back Better act is that it lowers prices for the American people, and it lowers taxes for the American people.”

Listen to Seattle’s Morning News weekday mornings from 5 – 9 a.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

Follow @http://twitter.com/Mynorthwest