Sign me up to drive your daughters out of state or to Asheville if they need abortions.

And promise that you’ll take mine. If they need one, if they want one, if they feel like they can’t talk to me about it. Pretty soon they won’t be able to go to Planned Parenthood in Chapel Hill. They may need a ride. And if they can’t come to me, let it be one of you. And I will do the same for yours.

I was at the Legislature on July 3rd with approximately 600 other protestors to be a witness to the erosion of women’s reproductive freedom.

This anti-choice Bill will effectively close down almost every abortion clinic in the State.

Why was I there? Why were any of us there to see the inevitable? We were there to be witnesses, but many of us have personal stories…

I have my grandmother’s story of her illegal abortion. She was married with two babies. When she discovered she was pregnant again, her mother encouraged her to have an abortion, fearing that her family’s finances, her marriage, her babies, and her body could not handle this pregnancy. She had a back alley abortion, came home and nearly bled to death before she went to the hospital.

My grandmother lived to be 90. She was a public school teacher, raised three children, had seven grandchildren, and lived to see six of her great grandchildren. Among us, there are lawyers, rabbis, teachers, business executives, and professors. None of us would have been possible had she died from her truly unsafe abortion. The lack of safe choices nearly killed her.

I have three daughters.

I was at the legislature on July 3rd in part because of my grandmother’s story, but also because I wanted to be with the 600 other people who will drive my daughters to wherever they need to go, if they ever need to go there. It was good to see your faces in the crowd.