By Stephanie Schriock

Forty-three years ago today, the Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade, making a woman’s right to have an abortion the law of the land.

Today, calling for its repeal is pretty much a baseline in the Republican Party. And working to undermine it — in Washington and across the states — with TRAP laws, waiting periods, and mandatory ultrasounds (effectively ensuring that millions of American women are unable to access their right due to income or geography) is standard practice.

In fact, today, in the United States, women in one zip code do NOT have the same access to abortion as women in another.

Republicans ghoulishly and falsely accuse Planned Parenthood of selling “baby parts” to scare women and close clinics. In fact, we have a major candidate for the Republican nomination who would force a child who’s been raped to carry their pregnancy to term. Roe, and the lives it has allowed all of us to choose to live, are under attack like never before.

With the stakes this high, I know one thing for sure: We need a champion in the White House to fight for us more than ever before.

Hillary Clinton is the only candidate in this race — from either party — who is already that champion.

And here’s why:

There’s no question that if we lose the White House to the Republicans in 2016, we lose Roe v. Wade, the Affordable Care Act, and every right we’ve won over decades of work and struggle. At this point, that’s a given.

But let’s say we succeed in keeping the White House by electing a Democrat.

Just because we do that doesn’t mean the Republicans are going to stop pushing their extreme, right-wing agenda — or that they’ll stop their ceaseless attacks on women and access to reproductive health. If the last few years are any indication, their anti-woman policies will only continue to get worse.

This means that right now, more than ever, we need a president we can trust to take on the tough fights.

Bernie Sanders does not have what it takes. What he does have is a record of supporting pro-choice legislation in the Senate.

But if we’re going to save Roe v. Wade and keep this country moving forward, we need more than just a reliable vote. In the White House, we need a leader who understands how critical this issue is, who will not only work to defend our rights — but expand them too.

At this moment in our history, holding the line for our rights just doesn’t go far enough.

We can’t afford a Democratic nominee for president who treats abortion rights like an afterthought, much less one who attacks Planned Parenthood while it’s already under siege from Republicans. I was as shocked as many of my progressive friends were when Bernie Sanders dismissed Planned Parenthood as part of the establishment he’s fighting against — just because they endorsed Hillary. It was petty, it was counter-productive, and it was wrong.

Bernie Sanders just doesn’t get it.

In July, he said to Rolling Stone that “once you get off the social issues — abortion, gay rights, guns — and into the economic issues…there is a lot more agreement than the pundits understand.”

What Bernie Sanders needs to understand is that real progressivism isn’t just about breaking up big banks. It’s about attacking economic inequality from every angle and for everyone — starting with the economic challenges families are facing in their everyday lives. (And, by the way, it took generations of struggle to get these basic challenges even considered at the decision-making table in Washington.)

What progressives already know is that the right to have an abortion isn’t a “social issue” to be relegated to some sidebar conversation when we should really be talking about economic justice. Protecting the right to have an abortion is one of the most important economic justice issues over half of the American population could face.

The truth is that the decision of whether — or when — to have a child is one of the most important economic decisions many Americans will make in their life. Which means reproductive rights should be front and center in any real conversation about fixing the economy and making things better for middle class families.

In the last few days alone Bernie Sanders put out a health care plan that doesn’t once mention the word women and called Planned Parenthood part of the establishment he’s running against.

Even worse, he consistently treats reproductive rights like they’re something to talk about for extra credit, and not essential to building an economy that works for all of us and moves this country forward.

By way of contrast, Hillary Clinton — from her work with the Children’s Defense Fund, to her time in Arkansas to her years as our Secretary of State — hasn’t just supported economic justice for all — she’s made it her life’s work. And she’s done it with the understanding that issues of economic fairness and reproductive rights intersect in people’s lives in sometimes-complicated ways. Hillary Clinton is running to repeal the Hyde amendment and fight for the millions of women and men who depend on Planned Parenthood for care. That’s why, when she’s elected president, she won’t just hold the line on our right to choose.

Forty-three years after Roe v. Wade, our country has to make the same decision all over again…I want to make sure every progressive voter knows exactly what’s on the line.