This week, the Supreme Court delivered an enormous victory for reproductive freedom in America.
By 5-3, the Court made clear it’s time for politicians to stop passing laws that harm women and limit access to safe and legal abortion, and instead respect women’s right to freely make their own decisions about pregnancy.
But in an election year, with Supreme Court appointments at stake, reproductive rights for far too many are still not guaranteed.
Here is where we’ve been: In recent years, my home state of Texas has been a battleground for reproductive rights. I was in the Texas capitol in 2013, alongside thousands of Texans, when then-state Sen. Wendy Davis spent 11 hours straight on her feet, filibustering to stop unconstitutional restrictions on abortion.
The Texas legislature ultimately passed the law, known as HB2, shutting down approximately half of abortion providers statewide under the thin premise that it would make women seeking abortion safer. In fact, HB2 was a blatant attempt to push abortion out of reach for women.
As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said Monday, “it is beyond rational belief that H. B. 2 could genuinely protect the health of women, and certain that the law ‘would simply make it more difficult for them to obtain abortions.'”
And it has.
Just a few weeks ago in Fort Worth, I met a young woman from Midland, Texas. She drove 300 miles each way to access what is a legal medical procedure in the United States. She is one of many.
Planned Parenthood health centers in Texas have seen an increase in the number of patients traveling more than 100 miles for abortion, and there are many others who cannot make the trip at all. Traveling, missing work, and finding childcare are not always options. This is especially true for groups who have historically faced systemic barriers in accessing quality health care, including people with low incomes and communities of color.
For 100 years, Planned Parenthood has been fighting for women’s rights to control their bodies, and providing compassionate health care to help women build the future they want.
But a right doesn’t mean much if you cannot access it, and politicians in Texas and other states have pushed the rights of far too many out of reach. Across the country, 316 abortion restrictions have been written into law in the last five years alone, according to the Guttmacher Institute, and we can expect even more as politicians try to find new ways to punish women who seek safe and legal abortion.
It’s important to remember this is not just happening in Texas. Other states, including Wisconsin, Mississippi and Missouri, have passed their own laws to make it harder for doctors to provide women to access abortion.
Women in this country — our daughters and sisters and neighbors — deserve better than this from their leaders. They deserve access to high-quality, compassionate care in their communities. They deserve to make their own decisions about their health, their bodies, and their future — not to have politicians make those decisions for them.
We need to trust women.
This is an election year. With at least one open seat on the Supreme Court, our next president — and the new Supreme Court justices they could appoint — will determine whether women continue to have a constitutional right to safe and legal abortion.
Donald Trump has made it clear that he will eliminate women’s ability to access abortion, and appoint justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade. Hillary Clinton, however, has been an outspoken champion for women’s health and rights. She has made it clear she understands and cares about the lives of women and families. And she will fiercely protect our ability to freely make our own decisions.
That’s why Planned Parenthood Action Fund is doing everything it can to elect her. For the people Planned Parenthood serves, there is too much at stake.
We cannot go back to the days when abortion was a crime and doctors and women were criminals. Monday’s Supreme Court decision was an important step forward. Now we have to fight to protect the rights of everyone — no matter who they are or where they live — to freely make their own decisions about their health and their future.