Jackie Speier, a women’s rights warrior, leaving office but not leaving the fight

Since beginning her political career as a San Mateo County supervisor in 1979, Speier has fought for a number of issues but two have been near and dear to her heart given their personal impact on her life — gun reform and women’s rights.

As a congressional staffer for Congressman Leo Ryan, Speier, among a crew of delegates and media personnel, was caught in ambush while visiting Jim Jones’s People Temple compound in Jonestown, Guyana. She survived and joined the fight for gun reform, which has always been a contentious one with financially stacked lobbying groups like the National Rifle Association maintaining strong ground.

By the time Speier entered elected office, progress had already been made to secure the right to an abortion thanks to the landmark Roe v. Wade decision by the high court in 1973. Decades after that decision, Speier found herself in need of its protections.

She was serving in the California Legislature at 17 weeks pregnant and was excited to grow her family when she learned the fetus had slipped out the cervix and became unviable. After consulting with her husband and a doctor and trying everything they could to save the baby and herself, they decided their only option was to undergo an abortion.

The decision to do so was devastating for Speier, who had already experienced two miscarriages, including one at 10 weeks pregnant and had known the fear of carrying one’s own dead creation inside of themselves.

“The thought of having a dead fetus in my body was horrible and people don’t appreciate the trauma associated with miscarriages and abortions,” Speier said. “Women are the vessels by which life is created but it is also important to point out that it should be a decision that is made recognizing all the responsibilities associated with it.”

About a decade ago, Speier told that story on the House floor in response to comments made by U.S. Rep. Christopher Smith, R-Hamilton, N.J. She intended to speak on a different subject that day when government spending was meant to be the core of the discussion, but felt compelled to speak out after Smith graphically detailed one type of abortion procedure, insinuated women cavalierly undergo abortions and lambasted Planned Parenthood, the largest reproductive health clinic in the states, as “child abuse incorporated.”

“When I told my story on the House floor, it was in response to this egregious description by a colleague who knew nothing about the process,” Speier said.

Stigma, support and contradictions

Because various groups have long worked to rewind the Roe decision in the years after it was released, Speier said she expected vitriol after laying out her experience so publicly. Instead, she received a flood of support from women who had lived with shame having undergone an abortion. Some of those words of support came from friends and peers Speier had known for years.

Speier said she hoped speaking out would help lessen the stigma around abortion and reproductive care; however, just a decade after telling her story, anti-abortion activists have gained a big win. Last month a majority of Supreme Court justices signed on to an opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito overturning Roe v. Wade, making Dobbs v. Jackson the case to end federal abortion protections.

The decision places authority with state officials to determine the legality and parameters of abortion access. More than a dozen trigger laws either restricting or banning abortions outright have taken place since and legal challenges have been spurred on, creating a quilt-work landscape of abortion policies from state to state.

Speier slammed the decision, calling it an outright attack on American freedoms and highlighting notes of rampant misogyny she said Alito laced throughout the document. It’s one she said she never fully expected to come. Instead, she believed justices would take the more narrow approach proposed by Chief Justice John Roberts which would limit abortions at the 15-week mark, a decision Speier said would still be wrong.

“This is a travesty. This is the greatest setback for women and women’s rights in the history of our country,” Speier said. “It’s government-mandated pregnancy. It’s repellent.”

The decision also doesn’t align with others released this session that worked to limit government oversight, not extend it, she said. In a blow to Speier’s other passion, the high court struck down a century-old New York law requiring gun owners to show “proper cause” for carrying a concealed weapon.

The court’s final ruling issued this session also limited the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to regulate carbon emissions from power plants, seen as a blow to federal efforts to reduce the effects of greenhouse gasses on the environment.

“Just in the matter of two weeks they’ve made our communities less safe by allowing people to carry guns in an open carry environment with no regulations and they’ve taken away a woman’s right to determine what to do with her own body and … told the government you cannot regulate corporations that spew CO2 into the atmosphere,” Speier said. “It is an originalist activist court of the likes we’ve never seen.”

Shoring up solutions

As a solution around the court’s Dobbs decision, Speier advocated for doing away with the filibuster, a political procedure meant to stall proposed legislation in the Senate that lacks at least 60 votes to end the debate and approve the measure. The procedure is not in the Constitution, has undergone a number of changes since being put into practice, and will likely be done away with if Republicans retake political power from the Democrats who currently control all three branches of government, Speier said.

But recognizing hesitancy to end the filibuster among some centrist Democrats on Capitol Hill, Speier said an exception could be carved into the procedure allowing abortion rights to be codifed with support from 50 senators and a tiebreaking vote by Vice President Kamala Harris.

As for the fate of a red wave this November, Speier said she also believes the recent decisions have lit a fire among Democrats who risk losing political control. Recent polling has shown a bump in support for “pro-abortion Democrats,” Speier said.

“I think there’s a sense of wanting to get back to a time when women were barefoot and pregnant,” Speier said. “There’s so much at stake I think people are beginning to realize that.”

Speier won’t be in office much longer to fight from within the political system. She announced her retirement in a video last year and has since endorsed Assembly Speaker pro Tem Kevin Mullin, D-South San Francisco, in the race for her seat. He’ll face off against San Mateo County Supervisor David Canepa this November but both candidates have been staunch supporters of women’s reproductive rights, making it unlikely the race will have much impact on the issue.

Her leaving Congress doesn’t mean the fight is over for Speier. She’s spent her career dedicated to fighting for firearm legislation and women’s rights and intends to continue her work wherever she goes, noting she’s looking for opportunities and not writing off a future return to elected office.

“I think my voice carries some weight on these issues but there isn’t a good time to leave,” Speier said. “We’ll see what the future brings. I’ve never been a big believer in plans because my plans have always been blown up by life experiences.”

sierra@smdailyjournal.com

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