Friends,

There are no words to adequately describe the baffling mixture of feelings conjured by combination of fear for the future and the gratitude at the outpouring of support Women Have Options has received this week. I don’t need to tell you that we face an unprecedented and deeply troubling threat to our democracy. But, that threat is complex and it comes myriad additional threats to the safety, dignity and civil rights of people of color, economic security of many, access to reproductive health care and on and on. It’s an awful list.  

While there is so much that is uncertain, I wanted to reach out to assure you that Women Have Options is here for what lies ahead. Our work is to make sure reproductive healthcare is accessible to all who need it. The degree to which our work just got more complicated is unclear in this increasingly radicalized and rapidly changing social and political climate. But, here is what I know for sure: Our work together to protect abortion and birth control access and the communities that need it has never been more important than it is at this moment.

Ohio has been a battleground for reproductive rights for some time and given the wildly emboldened opposition, we need your help now more than ever.

Women Have Options and our partners will stand firm and fight any loss of ground. While the uncertainty settles, we will continue to work to grow our ability to keep up with the growing need of abortion access. Our resolve is as strong as ever and our sense of urgency is at an all-time high as we continue to demand abortion access for all. But our success depends on you.

It’s time to double down.

What can you do?
Donate or hold a fundraiser to give someone in need the financial latitude to afford her choice. No donation is too small. As always, your contributions go directly to low-income patients to help mitigate the enormous and growing barriers to their own ability to make decisions for the bodies and direct the courses of their lives.

Join us on the ground. The Ohio legislature is back in session and determined to pass more abortion bans in the lame duck session. On Wednesday, November 16, join NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio, Preterm Cleveland Ohio, URGE: Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity, Women Have Options - Ohio, and New Voices Cleveland for a rally at the Ohio Statehouse to take a stand against the bans! You can use this form to RSVP and sign up for buses and carpools from Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Toledo: https://goo.gl/eYKizz 
Also, sign up to volunteer so we can let you know when we need your help.

Spread the word! Invite your friends to join you in supporting Women Have Options. The vast majority of Ohioans believe in the right to safe and legal abortion. While that has been consistently true for the last two decades, that knowledge isn’t as universal as it should be. We must be loud supporters of access and we stand firm in our beliefs.

Now, more than ever, I am grateful to have you by my side.

In Solidarity,

Stephanie Craddock Sherwood
Executive Director
womenhaveoptions.org