A Devastating Loss

Today I am joined by millions of Americans feeling the shocking loss of abortion rights in our country. While the signals have been there for months indicating this day would come, it does not make it any easier to bear.

Today's decision has far-reaching consequences for many Americans. It will also disproportionately harm people of color and low-income individuals who cannot travel to other states to receive abortions when they need them.

We must unite to protect the places where abortion services are still fully available. Oregon is home to some of the nation's strongest protections for abortion rights. If experience is any guide, we must learn to never take these rights for granted.

We all should be grateful for the Oregon Planned Parenthood team who have been preparing for this moment. Oregon is expected to see a steep increase in the number of people coming to our state to receive abortions and other reproductive health care services.

While ideological swings by the Supreme Court are not a new phenomenon, let's be clear that this ruling did not happen overnight. It is the product of decades of disciplined campaigning and organizing by the anti-abortion activists. By electing candidates at every level bent on outlawing abortion, they now have to manage the backlash.

Remember that today is not the last word. It's just the next chapter of this struggle.

In these troubled times, we must be firm and clear-eyed. We must out work and out organize opponents of abortion. It is important to hold opponents of the right to choose accountable for their position, which is not only wrong, but opposed by most Americans.

Every election should be a choice for freedom and our families. If we do our job this will backfire on them – and we must make sure that it does. Anti-abortion candidates must be held accountable and ultimately must lose at every level, be it national, state, or local elections.

We will fight back. We cannot let them be successful.

I pledge to do everything in my power to restore the right of every American to have access to the full spectrum of reproductive health care, including abortion. We will not be discouraged, but renew our efforts together.

Courage,

Earl