On Friday morning, Sen. John McCain, Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Sen. Susan Collins voted “no” on the Senate GOP’s Health Care Freedom Act, killing a troublesome and last-ditch effort to repeal Obamacare.
The GOP senators earned plenty of praise, and while their stance against the bill was instrumental, protestors with disabilities were also paramount in showing the general public how inhumane the GOP’s repeal was.
Protestors who are disabled were physically removed from their wheelchairs, dragged out of protests and arrested. They organized sit-ins outside of senate Republicans’ offices and slept in their wheelchairs or on hard office floors for days.
ADAPT, a national disability-rights organization, staged many significant protests throughout the nation including several protests in Washington D.C. and Denver where a group of activists staged a nearly 60-hour sit-in in front of Sen. Cory Gardner office.
Even the chant ― “Kill the bill” ― that flooded the Senate floor on Tuesday first belonged to a group of protestors with disabilities.
Through their efforts, ADAPT — and other disability advocacy groups that staged healthcare protests in protests in Kansas, New Orleans and New York — are showing the nation that the disability community is a force to be reckoned with.
And some people on Twitter feel it’s only right to give these tireless individuals kudos for their hard work:
Yet, despite Twitter users directing the credit where it belongs, ADAPT responded to the praise reminding people to continue the fight:
Despite what the GOP tries to pull in the future, they can expect ADAPT and the rest of the disability community to hold them accountable.
