Friend,
As chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Constitution subcommittee, I will be holding a hearing later today about protecting Roe v. Wade with legislation I have introduced, the Women’s Health Protection Act. I hope you’ll allow me a moment to explain why this law – which will guarantee equal access to abortion everywhere in the United States – is so important, and why I need your help.
Right-wing state legislators have waged coordinated attacks on women’s reproductive freedoms for decades – and now, the endgame for those conservative attacks has finally materialized: The Supreme Court will consider a direct attack on Roe v. Wade when they deliberate the constitutionality of Mississippi’s extremist abortion ban this October.
Laws like Mississippi’s are about more than personal healthcare choices. This is an issue of human rights, economic rights, and social justice. While the rest of the world is making progress – bolstering access to abortion significantly over the last two decades – state-based attacks in the U.S. have upended women’s access to healthcare: These draconian laws are hurting women and families as they make personal and difficult medical decisions.
If the Court’s 6-3 conservative majority – cemented by Donald Trump – upholds this abortion ban, it will fundamentally undermine Roe v. Wade. That’s why I’m taking action in the Senate to ensure, whichever way the Supreme Court rules, that Americans’ access to safe and legal abortion is protected by the Women’s Health Protection Act.
Despite the majority of voters wanting abortion protected under federal law, it is going to take a groundswell of grassroots advocacy to get this bill passed through Congress. To power this legislation through the Senate, I’m counting on 2,000 members of this team to sign on as Citizen Co-Sponsors of the Women’s Health Protection Act: Will you step up now to become a Citizen Co-Sponsor before our 11:59 p.m. deadline tonight? We need all the support we can muster to pass this legislation and protect women’s reproductive rights.
Make no mistake: We cannot let hypocritical, so-called anti-government Republicans force our country back to a time when the government controlled people’s personal decisions about whether and when to have a child.
We cannot go back to an era where abortion was driven underground because it was illegal – making it unsafe, jeopardizing people’s lives.
We cannot go back to an America where the rich and privileged get whatever care they need, but those who make up the rest of the country – especially Black women and other women of color – are left to struggle and suffer.
And we cannot allow a political climate where the extremist political dogma of mainly white male lawmakers trumps basic human rights.
You can take action to prevent our country from turning backward, Friend: Join me in getting the Women’s Health Protection Act passed through the Senate so that extremist attacks on abortion are stopped at the state level, and so that abortion access is guaranteed everywhere, no matter what the Supreme Court decides in its upcoming ruling.
Thank you,
Dick
