This week marks the 47th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision, giving people the right to make their own reproductive health care choices without government interference.

But that also means our country has endured nearly a half-century of escalating attacks on personal autonomy – particularly for women.

In that time, Republican leadership has become more and more radical, and now advocates for some of the most extreme anti-choice plans, including imposing a "penalty" for women who choose to terminate a pregnancy, depriving rural clinics of critical funding, and imposing a gag rule on health care providers, barring them from even informing a pregnant patient of all of their options.

These positions will deprive Americans – disproportionately low-income women, people of color, and women in rural areas – of access to birth control, pre-natal care, cancer screenings and basic reproductive health care.

That's not only cruel. It's dangerous.

That's why this week, I'm especially proud to be named a "Pro-Choice Champion" by Planned Parenthood Action, and to have received steady 100% ratings from NARAL.

I will always – always – defend reproductive freedom and the right of people to make choices about their health care in consultation with their doctor, not the government.

Ron