I’m not sure if I ever told you this, but there was a weeklong period back when we were dating when I seriously thought I was pregnant. Things were just starting between us and I didn’t want to freak you out, so I kept my panic to myself and quietly researched just exactly how and where I’d get an abortion.

My inquiries were productive — I was lucky to live in a very blue state and so there was a Planned Parenthood within easy driving distance. I wouldn’t have needed to travel hundreds of miles or pay to stay in a motel while sitting out a mandatory waiting period. I wouldn’t have been forced to undergo a medically unnecessary ultrasound or made to carry out the bizarre ritual of arranging and paying for the cremation of a tic-tac-sized embryo. I wouldn’t have been required to sit naked in a hospital gown while a clinic staffer read to me from some official pamphlet about what a murdering slut I was. Furthermore, I would have been allowed to a have a safe and simple medical abortion rather than a more invasive surgical one requiring general anesthesia, something not available to women in many states where the law mandates that medical abortion patients be give a dose of mifepristone that is three times that which doctors consider healthy or necessary. I thought about all of this while surreptitiously comparing labels on home pregnancy tests at CVS and felt a wave of relief, because I knew that no matter what the test said, an unplanned pregnancy would not have the power to ruin my life.

There are a couple of articles that have been circulating on social media lately with titles like “I’ll never vote for Hillary because I don’t vote for Republicans” or “Why Hillary would be worse than Trump”. I haven’t seen quite so many of them lately, which may be a sign people are becoming more sane, but is more likely just because I have taken to deleting them from my newsfeed in a huff whenever they pop up and I think Facebook’s algorithms are finally taking the hint. I hate these articles for a lot of reasons, but what really sticks out for me is that in all the long lists of progressive causes that Hillary supporters are told we ought to be worrying about, reproductive rights and women’s health are never mentioned once.

Stories like the one about my college pregnancy scare have been lived a million times. While many young women are simply going through a false alarm, there are many others who are not, and who are only able to continue on with the lives they choose because they have had access to safe and affordable abortion. While most women elect not to talk openly about their abortions, take it from me that there are some of your classmates who would not have graduated alongside you if Roe v. Wade were not the law of the land, and that there are some of your coworkers who would not be able to follow their current career paths were it not for the free healthcare services of Planned Parenthood and other like-minded organizations. This stuff is absolutely fundamental to our autonomy as equal citizens. Whatever else you may think of her, it is crucially important to recognize that a President Hillary Clinton will fight aggressively to protect these rights, just as surely as a President Kasich, Cruz or Trump will actively seek to dismantle them.

I wish that all of my friends who are disenchanted with our current Democratic party could see the Hillary Clinton that I see, because I really believe that she is the progressive champion we are looking for. Still, I understand that many of you feel angry and mistrustful, and I understand the temptation to sit this one out and wait for another candidate who strikes you as being more worthwhile. I am asking you to turn up and vote regardless however, and not just to turn up, but to come out strong, because this question of women’s rights and women’s health is worth taking to the streets for. I’m asking you to show up because I know that in John Kasich’s Ohio, a state-funded sexual assault crisis counselor like myself could have been fired for answering questions on abortion from a domestic violence survivor who came to the ER after having the crap beaten out of her for the second time in two weeks. I know that in Ted Cruz’s Texas I would have had difficulty encouraging a 17-year-old rape survivor to go through invasive evidence collection procedures due to the strong possibility that her rape kit would just be forgotten and eventually incinerated, which is an increasingly common fate for kits in many red states across the country. I am asking you to show up because I am truly afraid that in Donald Trump’s America, young women will be Googling “coat hanger abortion” and “how to give yourself a miscarriage” rather than Planned Parenthood, as they already are in many states with restrictive abortion laws. I am asking you to turn up because, believe it or not, we are only one or two Supreme Court Justice appointments away from that reality.

As you’ve probably heard, Donald Trump told Chris Matthews that women who get abortions should be punished. He walked the comment back, of course, and the rest of the GOP disavowed it with some bullshit about how they just want to celebrate and protect us; but don’t be fooled. That is absolutely the Republican agenda: you can’t label an act as murder and then say that the primary person participating in that act is somehow immune. If abortion were to become a crime then the women who get them — your friends, girlfriends, coworkers, classmates, etc. — would be classified as criminals, and they would be vulnerable to being prosecuted as such. This is a huge deal and I hope it terrifies you, because it sure scares the heck out of me.

If Hillary wins the Democratic nomination it will be, in part, because women, and particularly minority women, turned out for her. I know that many of you feel that these women have been tricked by a symbol, by our misplaced allegiance to a female candidate who you perhaps feel does not even represent feminist values. I know that there is a lot of intense resentment towards these women that is coming from the left (as seen in the outrage directed at pro-Hillary feminist icons Delores Huerta and Gloria Steinem), and I’ve read a number of columns and comment sections about how it will serve us all right when the Bernie supporters refuse to vote in November, because all these mindless Clinton supporters need to get what they deserve. What we “deserve”, according to many of these columns, is a President Trump or a President Cruz, and a one-way ticket back to the 1950s. I hope this kind of thinking reads as dangerous and ugly to you, because it is. So please, do not give in to those in the Bernie camp who would call for retribution, who would have you believe that if Hillary is our nominee then there is nothing left of value for our party to protect or even show up for. Do not allow yourself to be fooled into thinking that a Trump presidency will just be some embarrassing four-year slap on the wrist for the pro-Hillary crowd that can be easily recovered from. Rest assured that men like Trump and Cruz can find methods to punish American women in ways that last.

So, to all of my male allies who are contemplating the Bernie or Bust movement, do not beat these men to the punch; do not punish us by staying home.