When I saw the headline “ROE Act igniting debate on women’s reproductive health,” my first thought was: women’s health should never be up for debate. Everyone deserves the health care they need. No one should be denied care by politicians trying to impose their beliefs on others. The ROE Act will make sure that becomes a reality in Massachusetts.

Our state has some of the best health-care institutions in the world, but we force women to travel across the country to access abortion if they receive a fatal fetal diagnosis later in their pregnancy. If they can’t afford to travel, they must carry their pregnancies to term, knowing that their child won’t survive. For young people who don’t have a trusted parent in their life, the current law forces them to go through an onerous process to get the permission of a judge before they can get an abortion. This breaks my heart.

Anti-abortion extremists, of course, would tell you otherwise. They don’t want women to make medical decisions for themselves. They don’t trust doctors to care for their patients. Their goal is to shame women, control their bodies, and ban safe, legal abortion outright.

Sen. Cindy Friedman and Reps. Tami Gouveia and Tram Nguyen are right — abortion is health care, and politicians have no business blocking patients from accessing care. These lawmakers are three out of 114 state legislators who support the ROE Act, critical legislation that would take politics out of the doctor’s office and make Massachusetts law more compassionate and medically accurate. I thank them for fighting for women everywhere.

AMY WILSON

Lowell