Friend,

Right-wing, religious ideologues are once again interfering with when and how Americans decide to start a family: Last week conservative judges on Alabama's Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are children and therefore protected under the law.

With a concurring opinion from the state chief justice that infused religious beliefs and borrowed heavily from scripture and theology rather than focusing on the law, judges have upended family planning in Alabama. Multiple IVF clinics are halting services due to fear of new legal implications.

This groundbreaking and outrageous ruling has a devastating impact on all couples who would like to have a family – especially on military families who have no control over where they are stationed and end up in Alabama. If couples need medical assistance to start a family, or grow a family, their hopes will be dashed. It's sickening. 

This is yet another Republican-led attack on reproductive freedom that cannot go unchallenged. It really says the quiet part out loud that none of this is about babies or fetuses; it’s just about control.That's why I'm asking you to sign my latest petition condemning the GOP's efforts to restrict reproductive rights in Alabama and across the country. If you're with me, will you add your name now?

This is a dark sign of what is to come should Republicans gain full control of government, particularly if Donald Trump is in the White House. Trump has even said he is considering using a centuries-old law – the Comstock Act, passed in 1873 to regulate interstate commerce – to restrict abortion nationwide.

In private, nearly every Republican member of Congress is lining up behind Trump's extremist agenda to eviscerate reproductive freedom further. Yet in public, the campaign group for Senate Republicans is coaching their candidates to publicly conceal their extremist views because they know it is so out of touch with what the American people actually support.

Republicans cannot have it both ways. We must keep up the pressure, expose their extremist views on reproductive care, and challenge any and all efforts to restrict bodily autonomy – but I need your help at this urgent moment:

I've launched this new petition condemning GOP attacks on reproductive rights, and in light of what's just happened in Alabama, I need your signature. Please join me in condemning these extremist actions right now.

Thank you for speaking out.

Dick