Three years ago, almost exactly to the day, I donned a pair of pink sneakers and joined thousands of Texans in standing up against a sham law advanced by Republicans in the Texas legislature to constrain women’s access to safe, legal abortion care in our state. It was a significant moment in my own journey – one that included the challenges of single-motherhood, the climb from poverty to success provided through both higher ed and contraceptive care to prevent a second, unplanned pregnancy, and, later in my life, termination of a much-wanted pregnancy for medical reasons.
The issue at stake that day was therefore deeply personal to me, just as it was to the over 16,000 women who shared their abortion stories to be read on the Texas senate floor back in June of 2013. While the proponents of that bill argued that they were advancing it to protect women’s health, we knew what they were really up to – an attempt to close as many clinics as possible and to block women from accessing their constitutionally assured care.
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