As I sit here, thinking of what to write I am remembering a time when I thought this would never be possible. How naive of me. Well, I am not going to sit and wait around for them to take my rights away here in Virginia. We must not act like it won't happen, because it will and it's only a matter of time. We must protect this right for ourselves, and the future women of this country. I cannot look my daughter in the eye, tell her I love her and care about her, and do nothing to protect her. This petition is the first step I plan on taking to secure our right to an abortion. We must petition our local representatives in congress and in the senate to act on our behalf and make sure this is added to our state constitution. It must be secured without a shred of doubt so that it can never be taken from us in the future. I'm asking you to join me and sign this petition so we can show these representatives we mean to eradicate any who stand in our way. We will not vote for those who would suppress us. 

I am afraid. I am afraid of what is to come if this continues. Already, there are stories of women in Texas and in Alabama who are being denied medical care for their miscarriages because doctors are afraid of being criminally charged for aiding in an abortion. And when they cannot come for the people providing the abortions, they will come for the woman having them. You think it will not happen to you, but even if you never get an abortion 1 in 4 woman who get pregnant will have a miscarriage and the idea of those being investigated and that you could be charged for that is despicable. These are woman who want their baby. They do not even know what causes miscarriages so doctors can literally say anything can cause one and you could go to jail for that. This might seem extreme and like it could never happen, but please don't be naive like I was. It can happen. It is happening! Help me stop it, help me do something about it to protect ourselves and our daughters. 

This petition is to add an amendment to the Constitution of Virginia protecting all women's right to abortions under the right to privacy and bodily autonomy up to 26 weeks and later for extreme cases where the life of the mother is at stake. This is the current law in Virgina and we should work to solidify it and make it permanent. And 26 weeks might seem late, but woman do not wait that long to terminate a pregnancy! Those are only in extreme, life or death situations, or the baby is already gone and they just need to remove the dead fetus. 

They give dead bodies more bodily autonomy than they give women. You cannot take organs from a dead body but you can force a 11 year old girl to go to term and deliver a baby (in some states they don't have exceptions for rape or incest and will actually allow the rapist visitation rights). This is not right. Please help me enact change and let our representatives know this is important to Virginians. 

With Love,

Emily - Loving mother, daughter, sister, protector