Remarks at the Women’s March on Washington

Hello, Washington!

It is an honor to be here on behalf of the one in five women in America who’ve been to Planned Parenthood for health care. I wish every single one of them could see you—you are a beautiful site, or, for some folks in Congress, a terrifying one.

We are here today to thank generations of organizers, troublemakers, and hell-raisers who formed secret sisterhoods, who opened Planned Parenthood health centers in their communities, and demanded the right to control their own bodies.

Today, we are here to deliver a message: We’re not going to take this lying down. And we will not go back.

For the majority of people in this country, Planned Parenthood is not the problem—we are the solution. We have been a part of the fabric of America for 100 years, and my pledge today is to ensure our doors stay open.

Now is the time for us to link arms for the right of working women to earn a living wage, for the right of immigrant families to live without fear, for the right of mothers everywhere to raise families in safe communities with clean air and clean drinking water — including in Flint, Michigan. We’re here for the right to live openly no matter who you are or who you love, no matter what.

And you better believe we are here fight for reproductive rights, including access to safe and legal abortion.

Because to expand on a historic quote from my friend and heroine Hillary Clinton—a woman who knows a little something about never giving up—reproductive rights are human rights.

Starting this week, Congress is going to be moving quickly to try to pass restrictions on reproductive health access. And we need to stop them. You need to contact your congressman, call your senators, and let them know we will not go back.

One of us can be dismissed, two of us can be ignored, but together we are a movement and we are unstoppable.

It is an honor to do this work alongside inspiring leaders like the woman standing next to me: Kierra Johnson, Executive Director of Urge: Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity.