Alito said women have power in electoral politics. We must prove it by voting for abortion rights.

As we head into an essential election cycle, we’re watching the past century’s progress to expand access to abortion and access to the ballot box significantly disintegrate before our eyes. The same anti-abortion lawmakers taking away our right to reproductive freedom are working overtime to ensure people are disenfranchised in this election and in elections to come.

Through a coordinated campaign, they are determined to turn back the clock and curtail broad swaths of Americans from participating equally in our “free” society.

Our nation is in an incredibly perilous moment. The Supreme Court has overturned nearly 50 years of precedent from Roe v. Wade to take away a previously recognized fundamental right. Now, state lawmakers across the country will determine our access to abortion. As justification for taking reproductive rights away from potentially 36 million people, Justice Samuel Alito says, "Women are not without electoral or political power."

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Meanwhile, the conservative majority in the U.S. Supreme Court has weakened the Voting Rights Act, the law preventing voting discrimination in elections. It has never been more clear that until we have equitable access to the ballot, Alito’s justification is nothing more than an empty promise.

Black women are at the center of social change

“Choice is the essence of freedom” are the most important six words in 1989’s "African American Women Are For Reproductive Freedom." Former Rep. Shirley Chisholm, Rep. Maxine Waters, Dorothy Height and Loretta Ross were among the prominent signatories of the pamphlet that so vividly used the history of Black women to illuminate its central thesis: “This freedom – to choose and to exercise our choices – is what we’ve fought and died for.”

For years, Black women have been at the very center of social change, facing injustice and inequality, yet have received little in return. Now, our democracy is on the line and we must listen to the Black women who have fought for centuries to spotlight the blueprint for saving our republic and our freedom by tackling the issues of voting rights and abortion rights together.

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There is no doubt that free and fair access to the ballot box is essential to achieving reproductive freedom. Voting is one of the most powerful tools we have, which means we need equitable access to the voting booths to protect our fundamental rights. When Black women are disenfranchised, we lose our freedom to make decisions on things that directly and disproportionately impact our lives and harm our communities – like state abortion bans that are expected to harm nearly 6 million Black women.

But the reality is this was the plan all along. Republicans have been chipping away at abortion, state by state and law by law, with the goal of decimating access. These efforts are all symptoms of the same infection: the disease of right-wing authoritarian impulses for control and power.

Taken together, they paint a dark portrait of what could become of America if we are unable to protect our most essential freedoms. Our cause is much greater than any single issue, but instead to protect the fullest meaning of our democracy.

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Right now, every state is a battleground for our rights. Republican-controlled states made that clear when the leaked opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization sent them scrambling to enforce trigger bans and near-total abortion bans in their state legislatures that would go into effect when Roe v. Wade was overturned. Republicans in power are restricting voting, banning abortion and criminalizing women and doctors. We’re seeing that in states like Pennsylvania, where Republican lawmakers are sidestepping Gov. Tom Wolf’s veto power and advancing a constitutional amendment to eliminate the right to abortion.

But when we elect enough Democratic officials, they work to make sure our fundamental rights are protected. We’ve seen this again and again at the state level – whether it’s Maine Gov. Janet Mills, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signing executive orders protecting abortion access in their states, or New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signing a legislative package into law that protects the rights of patients and providers.

Abortion is on the ballot

This November, abortion is on the ballot. Where you live and who is elected to office in your state determines far more than abortion rights; it determines whether you get to decide your own future.

To separate the interconnected issues of personal choice and democratic freedom is to allow for the segmenting of humanity. And more important, it would deny the fundamental truth that these issues are inseparable. Those of us who are determined to protect democracy and choice must respond accordingly and stand together because the greatest danger to our nation is right now.

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This work needs to happen outside of Washington by investing heavily in state and local races, especially those offices that afford the power to protect election outcomes. It needs to happen in places like Texas, Arizona, Georgia or North Carolina – all states leading in efforts to roll back our rights. We must also broaden our coalition and call to action allies who may not have always seen themselves in these fights.

As the president of EMILY’s List, an organization that works to elect Democratic women who support abortion rights, I know it’s time we expand our movement to include groups that depend on fair access to the voting booths to make change, like the people of organized labor, civil rights organizations and climate activists.

The freedoms that define this nation's very existence are under attack. History points in the general direction of progress, but we must do everything possible to ensure freedom and justice for generations to come.

Alito is right about one thing: Women do have a voice, and this November we must take him at his bet and vote like our freedom depends on it – because it does.

Laphonza Butler is president of EMILY’s List, the nation's largest resource for women in politics. Follow her on Twitter: @LaphonzaB

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Abortion rights must be protected at polls after Supreme Court ruling