| Danielle, this week officially marks the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade. But we can't celebrate 51 years of abortion rights. Because right-wing extremists on the Supreme Court ripped away that freedom in June 2022. And the past 18 months have been one new layer of hell after another. A 10-year-old girl who ends up pregnant, can't get an abortion in her home state with her family, and instead has to travel out of state to get it straightened out. Women who have something go wrong in the middle of a pregnancy and their doctors trying to decide if their patient is close enough to death to warrant a life-saving abortion or if they'll get sued for performing the procedure. And it's not one story. It's not 10. It's not 100. It's over and over and over. It's about people sitting in an examining room. A doctor and a patient in a tiny little room talking about their most intimate decisions and worries and fears and plans. And knowing that there's a third person in that room virtually: a Republican lawmaker. I was furious when the Roe decision came out. I was furious that women were being knocked aside by, frankly, a handful of men with very extremist views. Who decided on their own that, "Yeah, everybody gets the full range of medical choices…except this one medical decision." But people are fighting back. All across this country. - Right after the Roe decision came down, this movement responded by supporting abortion funds in states with trigger laws, and so far we have raised $267,000 to help abortion patients get the care they need.
- Meanwhile, we supported pro-choice candidates across the country running against anti-abortion extremists in the 2022 midterms. This team raised more than $230,000 to support those candidates, which made an incredible difference in the Senate races that came down to a wire. Because of everyone who pitched in, we were able to keep our Senate majority.
- Abortion also got on the ballot in Kansas, in Ohio, in Michigan, and people who'd never been politically active before got together — old people, young people, people from rural areas, people from cities —and said our voices will be heard. And when they got the chance to do that, they enshrined abortion rights into law in their states, not by a little bit, not by a squeaker, but by a big margin. This community helped raise an additional $188,000 to support the organizations working to secure abortion rights in those states and prevent these bans from affecting more patients.
Yeah, people care about abortion. In fact, most people in our country want to see individuals and their doctors making decisions about abortion, not extremist politicians. And when we all get together and make our voices heard — when we all go to the ballot box — then by golly, we can get that done. While these gains are powerfully important and made a real difference, they could still be erased. If you live in one of those states that has protected access to abortion, celebrate, but understand, the Republicans are still coming for you. Right now, there's another decision pending at the Supreme Court, and that is to get rid of medication abortion. More than half of all abortions today are medication abortion — and the Republicans are trying to get that drug pulled off the market. Additionally, Trump and Republicans have made clear that if they take back control in Washington, a federal abortion ban is at the top of their to-do list. That would threaten abortion rights in all states — even in those that have passed protections.
So, if you're really fired up about this, what you want to do this year is follow the federal elections. When people say, "Who are you thinking about? Are you getting involved?" The answer is, I care about abortion. And that's why I'm volunteering for Joe Biden. That's why I'm volunteering in this Senate race. That's why I'm volunteering for this House race. That's why I'm sending ten bucks in to be able to help the cause. Remind everyone abortion is on the ballot, because it is. And if we get a majority in the House, a majority in the Senate, and Joe Biden still in the White House, we can make Roe versus Wade the law of the land. In fact, I think that's going to be the first substantive law that we pass. And along the way, we need to keep taking care of each other. We need to keep supporting abortion initiatives in states across the country — if it make a difference for just one patient between now and the election, that would be enough. So Danielle, will you please pitch in $100 or anything you can to support Floridians Protecting Freedom? They just got abortion rights on the ballot in Florida, and now they're working to turn out voters to make sure abortion protections are passed in the next election. Thanks for being a part of this, Elizabeth  |
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