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Tacoma considers abortion safeguards

Steps would protect those seeking, have had procedure

By Liz Moomey, The News Tribune
Published: November 14, 2022, 7:45pm

TACOMA — On response to Roe v. Wade being overturned, the Tacoma City Council is poised to add protections for those seeking or have received an abortion in the city.

Olgy Diaz, an at-large council member, will present two ordinances at Tuesday’s council meeting. The first would create a misdemeanor charge for people who encroach on individuals seeking abortions or gender-affirming care.

“The city has an interest in ensuring public health and safety and protecting the privacy interests and personal safety of Tacoma residents and persons who traveled to Tacoma to seek health care not offered in their states,” Diaz said.

The second ordinance would add those who have received or are seeking abortions as a protected class and ensure their civil rights’ protections.

“In an effort to uphold Tacoma’s status as a welcoming and inclusive city, I believe that we should prevent discrimination in all its forms, particularly in a time when the ability to access services to self-determine someone’s pregnancy outcome has been left up to the state and local jurisdictions by our federal government,” Diaz said at last week’s study session.

Both ordinances reflect the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overruled in June the constitutional right to an abortion established by Roe v. Wade. Diaz said Washington state would see an increase in people traveling to it to seek abortion services and has already seen an increase, according to Society of Family Planning #WeCount report.

The ordinances are co-sponsored by Mayor Victoria Woodards, Deputy Mayor Catherine Ushka, District 4, and council member Sarah Rumbaugh, District 2.

The interference ordinance would adopt state RCW 9A.50.020: Interference with health care facilities or providers, which states it’s unlawful for a person to willfully or recklessly interfere with access to or from a health care facility or willfully or recklessly disrupt the normal functioning of such facility. That includes:

  • “physically obstructing or impeding the free passage of a person seeking to enter or depart from the facility or from the common areas where the facility is located,
  • making noise that unreasonably disturbs the peace within the facility,
  • trespassing on the facility or the common areas where the facility is located,
  • telephoning the facility repeatedly,
  • threatening to inflict injury on the owners, agents, patients, employees or property of the facility …”

Diaz said the ordinance still allows for people to exercise their first amendment rights at health care facilities and providers but “the minute there’s any kind of actual physical altercation and interference that’s where the enforcement piece would show up.”

Council member Keith Blocker, District 3, supported the ordinances, but questioned why the city hasn’t been able to address this previously.

City manager Elizabeth Pauli said the city administration has looked at other avenues without the council action.

Adopting the state’s RCW into Tacoma’s code would authorize the city attorney to prosecute the offense in Tacoma Municipal Court, the ordinance states.

A gross misdemeanor is punished by imprisonment in the county jail for a maximum term fixed by the court of up to 364 days, or by a fine in an amount fixed by the court of not more than $5,000, or by both such imprisonment and fine.

Woodards thanked Diaz for proposing the ordinances and said the council wanted to take action after the Supreme Court’s decision.

Council member Joe Bushnell, District 5, said he is in full support of the ordinances.

“I cannot believe that in the year 2022 that we are even having to talk about this, it’s a really sad state of affairs,” Bushnell said. “Where the federal government is not stepping up, it is up to us as a local entity to preserve and protect people’s right to health care as a human right. Health care is a human right.”

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