Earlier this week, the Supreme Court agreed to review a Mississippi law that all but eliminates abortion access – meaning there is now a very real chance that Roe v. Wade will be overturned.

As the New York Times put it:

“If Roe were overturned, abortion would be likely to quickly become illegal in 22 states. Forty-one percent of women of childbearing age would see the nearest abortion clinic close, and the average distance they would have to travel to reach one would be 279 miles, up from 35 miles now.”

With Trump’s  addition of Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh, the Supreme Court now leans hard to the right. The battle to protect women will be moving to all 50 state legislatures.

We’ve always known that a conservative-majority Supreme Court would threaten abortion rights. Still, we know that state legislators have power, for good and for ill.  They can make access abortion easier; or they can create laws that make it so difficult, it’s practically impossible.

In many states we work in, like Texas, women have  incredibly limited access to safe and legal abortions. And Texas Republicans don’t stop there. This legislative session alone they have introduced several harmful abortion bills.

On Wednesday, Governor Abbott signed SB-8, a “heartbeat bill” that bans abortions in Texas as early as six weeks – before most people even know they are pregnant. In addition, one of the provisions in SB-8 allows anyone, even people out of state, to sue doctors, abortion organizations, or anyone who helps another person access abortion care.

In other words, abortion is currently inaccessible to  many people, even with Roe in place.

This is why we must elect pro-choice Democrats to state legislatures.

According to Forbes, “California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington have all enacted state laws that explicitly protect the right to an abortion, which will remain in effect in the event that Roe is overturned.“

In Virginia, legislators we helped elect in 2017 and 2019 were able to roll back some of the most harmful restrictions to abortion access in the Commonwealth. This is a trend we see across the country—a small number of state governments – especially those under Democrat control – are passing legislation to protect abortion access.

We’re supporting nine incredible pro-choice candidates in Virginia this year, and in 2022 we’ll be supporting more in battleground states like Texas.

It’s time to get to work, and it’s going to take every last one of us to push back against what is coming our way. Please support our work today so we can keep women safe, free, and heard across the country.