Washington Citizens for Abortion Reform announce referendum campaign on December 8, 1969.

  • By Cassandra Tate
  • Posted 11/10/2000
  • HistoryLink.org Essay 1340
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On December 8, 1969, a group known as Washington Citizens for Abortion Reform announces that it will campaign for a referendum to liberalize the state’s abortion law.

The move was a response to the defeat of two abortion bills in the regular session of the Legislature. The group said it would propose a referendum during the special session of the Legislature beginning in January 1970, hoping “faint-hearted legislators” would be willing to submit the issue directly to the people.

On February 4, after adding a number of restrictions to the bill favored by the reformers, the Legislature agreed to put Referendum 20 on the ballot for ratification by the voters in November 1970.


Sources:

Walt Crowley, Rites of Passage: A Memoir of the Sixties in Seattle (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1995), 278; The Seattle Times, December 1, 1969; Journal of the Senate, January 30, 1970, pp. 233-234; Journal of the House, February 4, 1970, p. 301.


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