House Democratic women wear white for reproductive rights during Biden speech

More than a dozen House Democratic women used fashion to make a powerful statement at the president’s State of the Union address on Thursday night, arriving in head-to-toe suffragette white.

As lawmakers from both sides of the aisle filed into the House chamber, many were seen wearing white suits as a nod to the women’s suffrage movement – most notably in an effort to show support for reproductive rights.

“As the hours count down to President Biden’s State of the Union, I’ve joined my @DemWomenCaucus colleagues in all white to symbolize our joint commitment to women’s rights,” the Democratic representative Robin Kelly of Illinois tweeted before Biden’s speech. “We will never stop advocating for women, from reproductive rights to workplace equality.”

The Democratic representative Kathy Castor of Florida said in another missive: “We are standing up for your right to make your own health care decisions including abortion.”

Biden said during his address: “In its decision to overturn Roe v Wade, the supreme court majority wrote: ‘Women are not without electoral or political power.’ No kidding. Clearly, those bragging about overturning Roe v Wade have no clue about the power of women in America. They found out, though, when reproductive freedom was on the ballot and won in 2022, 2023, and they will find out again, in 2024.”

The color white has long been symbolic in the women’s suffrage movement. In 1908, at a rally in London’s Hyde Park, more than 300,000 protesters showed up to support a “votes for women” campaign and wore white; they were encouraged to do so by the suffragette, and a key member of the Women’s Social and Political Union, Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence.

According to The Telegraph, Pethick-Lawrence was the key driver of