By Liz Morris, NCJW Greater Houston Section

A few days ago, I found myself sitting next to a young woman who had recently graduated from college and was starting her career. This was a perfect opportunity, I thought, to share that my NCJW Houston Section had just created a music video and uploaded it to YouTube!

Our section assembled local talent and volunteers in Houston’s beautiful Discovery Green. We adapted the lyrics of Helen Reddy’s 1975 rhythm-and-blues feminist anthem, I Am Woman — updating it to reflect today’s struggle for access to comprehensive reproductive health care, and to highlight the impact women can have on this issue if we vote on November 6.

I was driven to suggest this project based on my own experience as a young woman, and the fear that current policies might literally bring me back to the time when I was in college. “You know,” I said, “three women in my college dorm were expelled from school before graduation because they got pregnant. The school infirmary didn’t provide birth control, as the pill was not yet available, and abortions were illegal — you know, before Roe v. Wade,” I added.

She was surprised! But perhaps she was more surprised to learn how fragile women’s health care gains are. In Texas, for example, our state government has sought to close a crucial network of Planned Parenthood health centers that primarily serve low income women. Shutting the doors of these clinics would mean thousands of women would lose access to needed preventive care, like birth control, cancer screenings, and STD testing. The outcome of this move has yet to be fully resolved, but it followed a spike of harmful restrictions to women’s access to family planning and abortion that were proposed by state legislators across the country after the 2010 election.

And unfortunately, challenges to women’s reproductive freedom aren’t so hard to find at the federal level either. In Congress, some leaders have stated their opposition to efforts that expand access to birth control, despite the health benefits, employment opportunities, and economic security that contraception ensures women and families. Not to mention the positive impact that family planning can have on our national spending: experts at the Brookings Institution have shown that our country could save about $6 billion per year if we stepped up our efforts to reduce unintended pregnancy.

The issue of ensuring access to comprehensive reproductive healthcare, including contraception and abortion, impacts us all — no matter our age, our background or our financial status — because they affect the economic future and quality of life for all women and our families.

And as Helen Reddy herself explained when offering her support of our video project, “A lot of things that women have gained during the ‘70s have been lost. [While] many American history high-school textbooks include a whole chapter on feminism, often including mention of the I Am Woman song, it is time to re-ignite the message.”

Our message is that elections matter to women — and women matter in elections. And, I hope my colleagues, friends, and neighbors watch our video.