There is no question that women’s reproductive rights and health care were critical issues for many voters in this election—and their voice has been heard loud and clear with the re-election of President Barack Obama. During his first term, President Obama took the unprecedented step of ensuring that millions of women would be able to obtain contraceptives without a co-pay through their insurance plans. That step was an important one, but we still have a long way to go.
While the re-election of President Obama may give women across the country an opportunity to sigh a momentary breath of relief, the issue at hand still remains—it shouldn’t matter which party is in office or what candidate wins an election. These fundamental women’s rights should always be guaranteed and not be a political casualty of election results. But that simply isn’t the case for women in this country.
Across the nation, the Center for Reproductive Rights has brought the full power of the U.S. Constitution and courts to bear in ensuring that anti-choice politicians do not turn back the clock on reproductive rights. Just this past year, the Center has blocked extreme attacks on women’s rights and health care in Arizona, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, and Oklahoma.
This battle cannot be waged in the courts alone any longer. It’s time that a woman’s right to safe and accessible reproductive health care be safeguarded from the political tactics of those who seek to chip it away.
This is why the Center recently launched an innovative new campaign called DRAW THE LINE. We’ve enlisted the help of celebrity supporters, including: Kevin Bacon, Sandra Bernhard, Billy Crudup, Olympia Dukakis, Jenna Fischer, Lisa Kudrow, Tea Leoni, Audra McDonald, Oliver Platt, Martha Plimpton, Amy Poehler, Kyra Sedgwick, Sarah Silverman, Meryl Streep, and Louis Zorich, to help us in calling on women and men across the country to fight back by signing our Bill of Reproductive Rights.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrEXHISleAc&feature=share&list=PLNjzqk5lcILEO4uDofN0fHM0NowRPJkU0
The Bill of Reproductive Rights provides an opportunity for Americans to join together and tell lawmakers that they stand strongly behind a woman’s right to safe reproductive health care. It demands that women’s reproductive rights be regarded and protected as fundamental human rights that no government may deny, and that our governments at every level must guarantee and safeguard for all.
The response to this effort has been energizing and inspiring. We’ve garnered nearly 200,000 signatures from women and men across the country in just about one month, but we’re not done yet. Our goal with this campaign is to deliver hundreds of thousands of signatures to the President, Congress, and lawmakers around the country in order to demonstrate that the majority of Americans believe that these rights are fundamental, inalienable human rights that must be guaranteed and defended.
Please join us in taking a stand for women’s reproductive rights in America. Draw the line. Sign the bill. Share it with everyone you know. And participate in the conversation online by using the hashtag #DrawTheLine.
Nancy Northup is president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights.
