Less than a century ago, in 1920, Tennessee lawmakers ratified the 19th Amendment that allowed American women the right to vote in federal elections. The current drive by Republicans and corporate allies to uproot safeguards for privacy and women's rights undermines that legacy.
If women's right to use contraception is to mean anything at all -- if their individual right to make their own health decisions based on their own religious and ethical beliefs is to be a reality -- those rights must be protected by law from the interference of their employers.
As a female member of a younger generation, it is not only discouraging, but frightening, to see what's happening across the nation. I hope to grow up in a society that recognizes and upholds the reproductive rights of women.
If the next president is a Republican who gets to replace the ailing Ruth Bader Ginsburg with a judicial conservative, the right to privacy could be a thing of the past and states could enact laws which would pass Constitutional muster restricting access to birth control.