Friends – a question for you that may seem odd, but just go with it: Do you know how a pregnancy is dated?

I ask because a new study shows that only one-third of people know that pregnancy dating (meaning how many weeks pregnant a person is) starts on the first day of the last menstrual period.

Let’s think about what that means:

People on average find out that they’re pregnant a few days after they miss a period.
That means that when people find out they’re pregnant, they are already dated at about five and a half weeks pregnant!
But that doesn’t account for everyone – a full 25% of people don’t realize they’re pregnant until seven weeks or later.

So when anti-abortion Republicans pass extreme six-week abortion bans in red states – and call them the ‘gold standard’ – what they’re really doing is effectively banning abortion outright for nearly all pregnant people.

And here’s an incredibly jarring part of this study: The data shows that people who support six-week abortion bans are significantly less likely than others to correctly understand this basic timing around pregnancy. Another study backs this up, too – showing that the more you know about pregnancy, the more likely you are to support access to abortion.

(It’s almost as if getting pregnant or having a loved one who was pregnant makes you intimately aware of all the health challenges and serious complications that can occur, and how having access to a potentially lifesaving abortion is a no-brainer!)

What else does this study report?

Well, not surprisingly, women are much more likely to know more about pregnancy timing than men (43% vs. 23%). And yet in states like Florida, where a six-week ban went into effect on May 1, the lawmakers who support and enact these dangerous bans are overwhelmingly MEN.

Let me be clear – I’m not saying that Republican politicians only support extreme abortion bans because they don’t know enough about pregnancy. In fact, they’ve made it clear that attacking our reproductive freedoms is about control, not about our health or even our pregnancies.

But everyday voters (especially men!) need to be informed about pregnancy: how it’s dated, the very real health risks pregnant people face, and how an abortion ban anywhere in this country harms women, girls, and pregnant people everywhere. And they need to know what’s at stake in November.

That’s why between now and Election Day, we all need to be having these conversations with people in our lives and circles – so that when the time comes, we can kick the anti-abortion extremists out of office for good.

This is incredibly important, and we can’t just expect the problem to be solved on its own. So are you with me? If you are, please consider pitching in $25 to my re-election campaign to help defeat my anti-abortion MAGA opponent and flip the House blue in November.

Thanks for being here.

-Sara