Before being elected to Congress last year, Georgia Rep. Nikema Williams served in the state Senate. Prior to her political career, she worked at Planned Parenthood Southeast and was the legislative coordinator and regional public policy manager for Planned Parenthood of Georgia. So, of course, she has a lot to say about the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
“I was a member of the [state] Senate when Georgia passed a six-week abortion ban, which is currently still held up in federal court,” Williams tells Daily Kos.
“Knowing that this [Roe decision] was coming down the pipeline and not waiting for the final verdict from the Supreme Court, I had already reached out to my colleagues in the House and found a resolution that would affirm the fact that in the federal law, we would not criminalize women or doctors for either providing care or seeking care related to abortion services or gender-affirming care,” Williams adds
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Williams co-sponsored the Women’s Health Protection Act along with Rep. Judy Chu of California. “This is the very first time that we've had a majority of pro-choice members in the United States Congress. But when people always ask, ‘Why wasn't Roe codified before?’ The answer is that the votes haven't been there. We don’t have enough folks in the Senate without abolishing the filibuster,” she says.
Williams says ending the filibuster is “absolutely the key” to making changes and getting progressive bills passed. Either that, she says, or “we add two additional seats in the U.S. Senate.”
She adds that people believed that electing two Democratic senators in Georgia—Sen. Raphael Warnock and Sen. Jon Ossoff—would make a majority.
“But, that's not really the majority. To get bills passed in the Senate, you need 60 votes. And so we either need 60 U.S. senators who’re on our side, or we need to abolish the filibuster,” she says.
In the meantime, she adds, it’s critical to champion candidates such as Stacey Abrams into the governor’s office and keep Warnock, a devout pro-choice pastor, in his seat.
“What we know is that even if Georgia continues to have a majority Republican conservative legislature, we need a governor in place who can veto laws. Because right now, [Gov.] Brian Kemp, who signed the six-week abortion ban into law, has already vowed to do more. He has so many people in the state, right now, asking him to call a special session just to ban abortion under any circumstances—even in aspects of rapes and incest,” Williams says.
Williams fills the seat left by the late, great John Lewis, representing the 5th Congressional District. She says it was “overwhelming” to get the nomination. Lewis was a close friend and mentor to the congresswoman, she says, and her husband worked for Lewis. Filling the shoes of the king of “good trouble” was another thing altogether, she adds.
“I know that I can never step in the shoes of Congressman Lewis. I have to take the advice he would have given me: that each generation has an obligation to take the baton and to move us one step closer to full equality. And that's exactly what I've been doing in Congress. Not trying to be Congressman Lewis, but being myself and taking those lessons that he's taught me to move us one step closer to full equality for everyone,” she says.
Daily Kos was speaking with Williams just a day before Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis sent “target” letters to several prominent Republicans in Georgia, letting them know indictments were coming their way for their roles in the fake electors scheme.
Williams says Willis’ investigation into former President Donald Trump’s election tampering in Georgia reminds her of all the many Black women who have “stepped up to save our country.” Willis is the first Black woman to represent Fulton County as district attorney.
“I've heard frustrations where people are like, ‘Well, what's taking so long?’ But it's not the speed we need [Willis] to take, it is the end result. And so she has been very intentional about making sure she has a clear case and she gets all of the evidence and all of the information in place before she moves forward. And I appreciate that. And I think that coupled with everything we've seen, with the January 6 hearing, if I were Donald Trump, I would be really afraid of what was next because he appears to have broken many laws and we finally have someone who's willing to move forward with prosecuting him,” Williams says.
In our Good Fight series, we always finish by asking about how these activists stay positive. Williams answers simply, saying that she’s a Black woman from the South, so she understands what it’s like for the odds to be stacked against her.
“I understand that I'm operating in a system that was not designed by or for people who look like me, but I'm determined to make it work for all of us. I also have this little 6-year-old boy who is the light of my life, my Carter Cakes. And every time I look at him and right now, he wants to be a Pokemon trainer when he grows up, but one day he's going to realize Pokemon aren't real. But I want every opportunity out there available for him to achieve whatever it is that he wants to do. And so I know that when I make this society better for my Carter Cakes, I'm making it better for every other little boy and girl out there,” Williams says.
The Good Fight is a series spotlighting progressive activists battling injustice in communities around the nation. These are the folks who typically work to uplift those who are underserved and brutalized by a system that dismisses or looks to erase them and their stories.