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A 5-4 Supreme Court majority allowed Texas’s ban on abortions after six weeks to stand, even though it defies Roe v. Wade’s guarantee of abortion rights. Now, the Court has put this case on the fast track for full consideration.

Green-lighting Texas’s actions would mean approving a clearly unconstitutional attack on the right to an abortion. The law also sets up a dangerous vigilante-mob enforcement mechanism. It offers a financial incentive to sue anyone who gets an abortion, or helps someone get an abortion — including health care providers, friends and loved ones, or even Uber drivers.

Even if the Court does the right thing in this case — a big IF — next month they will hear arguments against the Mississippi law that intentionally challenges the constitutionality of Roe v. Wade and bans all abortions after 15 weeks.

It’s clear: the constitutional right to an abortion is under attack. We cannot hope for the most conservative Supreme Court in recent time to do the right thing and protect the constitutional right to an abortion. That means we must do everything we can both locally and federally to ensure access to safe and legal abortions. Here are some of the ways we are staying in this fight:

• Supporting the activists at home in Vermont who are fighting for the Reproductive Liberty Amendment, which would enshrine the right to abortion in our state constitution and serve as a model for other states.
• Signing onto a brief with the House Pro-Choice Caucus urging the Supreme Court to uphold Roe v. Wade.
• Cosponsoring the Women’s Health Protection Act, which has already passed the House and would ensure equal access to abortion across the United States.

The Senate must now pass the Women’s Health Protection Act. But if the Senate comes up short, we will work that much harder to help elect more defenders of abortion rights across the country. Protecting abortion rights is too important.

While we work to protect abortion rights in Congress, leaders in Vermont are working around the clock to make Vermont the first state in the country to explicitly protect the right to an abortion in our state constitution.

It’s going to take all of us to make this happen. If you can, click here to join the Vermonters working to pass the Reproductive Liberty Amendment.

Thank you for taking action,

Peter