Team,

Hi — I’m Rosie, Julián and Joaquin’s mom. With the entire nation focused on Texas and its new abortion ban, I asked Julián if I could write to you directly and ask for your support for Texas organizations fighting for reproductive rights and abortion care.

As a lifelong Texan, I’ve spent decades fighting for equal rights and justice in our state. Julián and Joaquin spent many days by my side as kids as I organized, marched, and protested for voting rights, equal pay, and reproductive freedom in Texas.

Time and time again, we’ve seen Republican lawmakers in the state try to undermine the constitutionally protected right to abortion care. But this law, SB8, is an all-out assault on that right. Texas Republicans are trying to turn back the clock — on reproductive freedom, voting rights, and so much more.

The abortion ban is especially cruel and unusual, forbidding abortions after six weeks — which is well before many people even know they’re pregnant. It also allows Texans receiving abortion care to be sued by individual citizens, creating a bounty system to incentivize intimidation.

We’ve got to continue the fight. That includes challenging this ban in court, presenting data-driven arguments that help more people understand what’s at stake here. And just as important, that means electing a whole new group of leadership at every level of the state — because “leadership” does not describe what we have in Texas at the moment.

We also must support organizations on the ground in Texas that are fighting for abortion rights. So please, chip in anything you can — and help bring Texas a little closer to democracy for all its citizens.

Thanks so much,

Rosie Castro