This week marks the 31st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that guaranteed women access to safe and legal abortion. We have a responsibility ” to our grandmothers, best friends and daughters ” to ensure that decisions about childbearing remain personal and private.

Roe v. Wade didn’t invent abortion ” it just made it legal.

We must honor our grandmothers: Remember the women who suffered mutilation, sterility or death because they were forced to seek a back alley abortion.

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We must protect our best friends: Renew your commitment to fight for women to have confidential care without government interference.

Since taking office, President Bush has cut funding for family planning; dumped millions into unproven, medically inaccurate, abstinence-only sex education; imposed medically baseless ideology on scientific government Web sites and advisory committees; and passed an unconstitutional abortion ban with no provision for protecting women’s health.

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We must advocate for our daughters: Many have never known a world without Roe and are unaware of the grave threat that anti-choice decision makers pose to their reproductive freedoms. If we do not act now to protect our rights, we risk allowing others to impose their narrow ideological agenda on the most personal aspects of our lives.

We must continue to fight forward and advocate for access to the education, information and services that allow people to make responsible choices about the future. To learn more, log on to http://www.pprm.org.

Terri Worm

Manager

Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains

Glenwood Springs Health Center