John – if I could take just a minute of your time, I'd like to tell you a story that helped shape who I am. 

When I was a teenager, long before Roe v. Wade, I got pregnant. With the help of my mother, I made the decision to get an abortion. But with no access to the health care I needed in the U.S., I had to travel from my home in California to Mexico to receive a back-alley abortion.

I knew that I could die – because at the time, Black women were disproportionately dying from septic abortions. And I knew that I could be put in jail, because it was a criminal offense. It was traumatizing, and I refuse to go back to a time when abortion was criminalized.

That's why I've been working for decades to protect access to abortion – and why I feel that it's so important to share my story when our reproductive freedoms are under unprecedented attack. I want people to know that they will have a Senator who sees them, who understands what they're going through and who is giving them a voice.

I'm determined to take this fight to the Senate to defend and restore reproductive freedom nationwide. But I can't get there alone, John. So please, will you pitch in $5 or more today to help me win this race, fight for our fundamental reproductive rights and build a progressive future that works for all of us?

Thank you for fueling our progressive movement forward. I'm so grateful to have you by my side in the critical fights ahead.

– Barbara Lee