Councilmember M. Lorena González, chair of the Gender Equity, Safe Communities, New Americans & Education Committee, issued the following statement in response to the State Attorney General announcing this morning that Washington will sue the Trump Administration, which is barring taxpayer-funded family planning practices from making abortion referrals to patients:
“Earlier today, I was proud to stand with our State Attorney General Bob Ferguson, Planned Parenthood, the ACLU of Washington State and members of our community, to support Mr. Ferguson’s announcement of a new lawsuit to challenge the Trump Administration’s ‘gag rule,’ which would severely limit access to reproductive health and family planning for millions of women across the country, including here at home. This latest attack on women’s reproductive health by the Trump Administration’s is unquestionably harmful to Washington women, especially those living in rural communities with few options to access reproductive healthcare. We cannot and must not allow this President’s unconstitutional acts to go unchecked. I am confident that Mr. Ferguson’s sound and reasonable legal challenge to the proposed Title X healthcare regulations will be successful.
“I grew up in rural Central Washington in Yakima County. As a college student and a law student, I could not afford healthcare insurance. As a result, I too have relied on Title X healthcare clinics. Like so many other low-income and uninsured women, I know how vital family planning clinics are in both rural and urban communities. Women across our state deserve full and unfettered access to a physician who will provide her with medically accurate information to make the best decisions for her health.”