A few blocks from my home, my congresswoman works to gain a proxy vote for herself and voice for me.
Rep. Brittany Pettersen is weeks away from giving birth. Over the past few months she has been working to pass a measure that would allow pregnant women and new parents in Congress to vote remotely for several weeks. It is a common sense solution that is easy to adopt with modern technology.
Except that the anti-family agenda of GOP Speaker of the House Mike Johnson will not allow it.
In the latest example of an allegedly “pro-life” party demonstrating that it cares not a jot for the lives of parents and newborns, Johnson has rejected Pettersen’s request and stated his opposition to the solution she is sponsoring. It is not just petty, but mean and cruel.
It is the kind of thing we have come to expect from Johnson and the majority of the GOP in recent years. It is the kind of thing we should expect to see more of now that Republicans have taken control of both houses of Congress and the presidency. For example, they have already discussed cutting Medicaid — which covers health care, including for prenatal and neonatal care, for the poorest and most vulnerable — in order to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy.
Johnson may as well take his cues from Rep. Lauren Boebert, blow vape smoke into Pettersen’s face, and refer to the pregnant woman as a “sad and miserable person” while he is at it.
Thankfully, not all Republicans agree. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, who recently went through a difficult pregnancy of her own, has joined with Pettersen to make it a bipartisan push. A member of the GOP Freedom Caucus, Luna is far from a squishy, nanny-state liberal. Other Republicans may defect as well.
While the likelihood of Boebert bucking Johnson is equivalent to her chances of catching an encore of Beetlejuice, it would be nice to see some of Pettersen’s conservative Colorado colleagues join her. Rep. Gabe Evans could use the good will in one of the country’s closest congressional districts. Rep. Jeff Crank has always been thoughtful and willing to find creative solutions to problems. Rep. Jeff Hurd and his wife, Barbora (whom I worked with years ago and is a lovely human), have five kids and must be sympathetic to Pettersen’s plea.
If none do, voters should view their lip service to “family values” as nothing more than pragmatic lies in the next election cycle.
However, if only a handful join Pettersen and Luna, it should be enough to push a rule change through. With every Democrat backing the change and Johnson overseeing one of the slimmest majorities in congressional history, just a couple votes would be enough.
If that doesn’t end up doing the trick, maybe a lawsuit would.
While Johnson opposed pandemic era congressional proxy voting on a narrow interpretation of congressional voting under the U.S. Constitution, it seems that he may not have thought through the full ramifications of denying a pregnant member the right to vote.
Not only would Johnson be denying Pettersen her right to do her job, but he would be denying people like me equal protection.
Pettersen has not been able to travel for weeks and will not be able to do so for weeks more. It is both unsafe for her and impermissible under many airline restrictions. This is a situation unique to her as a woman and would seem to raise serious concerns about disparate treatment based on sex.
Furthermore, it would deny Pettersen the ability to fulfill her constitutional charge. Pettersen is more than capable of attending to her congressional duties remotely. Much of the world became intimately acquainted with electronic methods of conducting business over the past four years; many have adopted it as a permanent solution.
Johnson complaining that the Constitution, which was written before electricity was harnessed, does not allow for such solutions is laughable. It becomes untenable when he argues that the same document should be interpreted to protect modern assault-style weapons even though firearms needed to be muzzle-loaded in 1791 when the Second Amendment was ratified.
Selfishly, it also denies me my representation in Congress.
By denying Pettersen the ability to vote through a proxy — or participate by some electronic means — Johnson is effectively leaving hundreds of thousands of Coloradans without a vote in Congress. He has made us lesser citizens. It is anti-democratic and anti-American.
While we may not have a harbor nearby, denying representation seems like the type of thing worth yeeting a bit of Celestial Seasonings into Chatfield Reservoir over.
Johnson may not care as he sets about the busy work of implementing the every whim of his orange-faced king. Pesky things like morals, ethics, compassion and constitutional rights are not in vogue under the current regime.
But the rest of us should take note. Johnson and those who stand with him have adopted an anti-family agenda that has no place for Pettersen, her pregnancy or her constituents.
Mario Nicolais is an attorney and columnist who writes on law enforcement, the legal system, health care and public policy. Follow him on BlueSky: @MarioNicolais.bsky.social.
The Colorado Sun is a nonpartisan news organization, and the opinions of columnists and editorial writers do not reflect the opinions of the newsroom. Read our ethics policy for more on The Sun’s opinion policy. Learn how to submit a column. Reach the opinion editor at opinion@coloradosun.com.
Follow Colorado Sun Opinion on Facebook.