John, 

I'm reaching out to you today with a heavy heart. A Trump-appointed federal judge just issued a ruling that could take one of the most widely used abortion pills in the nation off the market. I am absolutely enraged and heartbroken, John. Our fight for reproductive freedom never ends.

I've championed reproductive rights for over a decade now, and I have seen the devastating effects of restricting women's health care choices firsthand. This ruling just delivered a devastating blow to our movement, but we cannot give up hope. We must continue to fight back.

That's why I'm calling on 10,000 of my strongest supporters to sign my rapid-response petition to protect the right to choose, and I am counting on you to be one of the signatures we need to get there. Please add your name now.

This fight is deeply personal for me because I have experienced the fear, stigma and despair of being denied the care that I needed. As a teenager living in a pre-Roe world, I made the difficult decision to have an abortion. It was a private decision that was nobody else's business. But because abortion wasn’t legal, I had to get that abortion in a back alley in Mexico.

We know who these extremists are, and restricting access to abortion pills is just another step in their efforts to show just how right-wing and extremist they truly are. And it's not limited to just the most conservative states; this decision will affect every single person seeking a medical abortion in the United States. Experts estimate that 40 million people across the country will be impacted by this ruling.

It is fundamentally wrong to restrict anyone's access to health care. It is shameful that despite many advances, full and lasting equality for each and every person remains elusive. And sadly, this structural sexism is even worse for people of color.

That's why I've been working in Congress to expand access to affordable child care and to ensure access to paid family leave. I authored the EACH Act, which would repeal the discriminatory Hyde Amendment that has restricted many women's access to reproductive health care.

The time to act is now. We cannot let the rights of millions of women be stripped away. We must stand together and fight back. So please, John, before our deadline at 11:59 p.m., will you add your name to our petition demanding that abortion access be protected nationwide?

Thank you for your urgent support.

Barbara Lee