Since January, politicians (overwhelmingly male) have passed laws severely restricting abortions in six states — Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio. These politicians have stopped pretending that their restrictions are about making abortion care safer. These laws are about taking away the right to abortion.

They are being clear, so let us be even clearer: abortion is basic health care and it is a constitutional right.

The ACLU and our partners across the country are doing everything we can to keep it that way. We have already filed lawsuits in Alabama, Kentucky, and Ohio, and we are preparing to challenge the bans in Georgia.

Here in California abortion is legal, both for teens and adults. But you should know your rights under the law and other basic information:

• You have the right to get an abortion for any reason until approximately six months after you become pregnant. After that, if the pregnancy puts your health or life at risk, you can still get an abortion.
• You have the right to keep your abortion confidential. If you are a teen, you do not need permission from a parent or guardian, and your doctor cannot require them to be notified.
• Most private health insurance plans cover abortion care. California also has free or low-cost programs that can help pay for an abortion.
• You can get an abortion at many family planning clinics and at some doctor’s offices. In addition to doctors, specially-trained nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives, and physician assistants are allowed to perform early abortions.
• Medical providers are not required to offer abortions and some hospitals and clinics associated with religious groups refuse to do them. Visit All Care Everywhere for more information.
• Beware of clinics that claim to offer comprehensive family planning services but will not disclose all options, including abortion. Calling themselves "Crisis Pregnancy Centers," "Pregnancy Resource Centers," and by other names, they give misleading information to try to prevent you from having an abortion. If you feel you are being lied to or coerced, you are entitled to leave a clinic or center at any time. To make sure an establishment is not posing as a true comprehensive women’s health clinic, search the End The Lies database.
• If someone at a clinic or doctor's office tells you that you cannot get an abortion, you can check that claim by calling the ACLU at 415-621-2488 or ACCESS Women's Health Justice at 1-800-376-4636.

To learn more, visit YourHealthYourRights.org for full information about your rights to reproductive and sexual health care in California.

Please also consider supporting the on-the-ground advocates in targeted states who have been working to protect access to abortion for years. Whether it’s uplifting their work via social media, providing volunteer support, or donating monetarily, you can take action to support them today.

Access to services and resources such as reliable transportation, health care coverage, quality education, and a safe community to raise a healthy family are intricately connected to a person's right to choose if and when they want to have a family.

Abortion bans fall most heavily on people of color. The organizations below — most of which are led by people of color — are among those that have been fighting tirelessly to make access to abortion a reality. They deserve our respect and support.

• Access Reproductive Care (ARC) – Southeast
• Feminist Women’s Health Center
• Mississippi Reproductive Freedom Fund
• Montgomery Area Reproductive Justice Coalition
• National Network of Abortion Funds
• SisterLove, Inc.
• SisterSong
• SPARK Reproductive Justice Now!, Inc.
• Southern Rural Black Women’s Initiative

It has been a horrific week for transgender and non-binary people. Muhlaysia Booker, Claire Legato, and Michelle Simone are Black trans women who have been murdered in the past week. At least five Black trans women have been killed so far in 2019.

On Wednesday, the Department of Housing and Urban Development wants to give federally funded shelters a license to discriminate and turn away transgender people. The policy move is seen by many transgender and non-binary people as an act of violence on our community and our lives.

Then Friday, the Department of Health and Human Services announced its plan to take away protections for trans people from discrimination in healthcare. Like many Black trans women, I struggled to find employment and experienced homelessness. I supported myself, and my family, by doing sex work. I was once assaulted and robbed by a client. Even in New York City, outside of the Stonewall Inn, I have been attacked and hospitalized.

For many trans and non-binary people, particularly Black trans women, our homes are not safe. Our schools are not safe. Our workplaces are not safe. We are ridiculed by health care providers and denied basic and necessary health care. When we don’t feel safe to get lifesaving medical care, and when shelters that receive taxpayer dollars are allowed to turn me and my community away, there is no place to go but the streets, where we face violence and murder. And too often, just like I experienced, law enforcement fails to respond.

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Transgender people need our friends and family to see us, honor and acknowledge who we are, and say publicly that we belong.

In announcing the new proposal, which has not yet been formalized, HUD continues to spread lies and myths about transgender people that we have seen before. The Trump administration has been saying transgender people are lying about who we are in our schools, workplaces, and the military. It even suggested in the HHS comments that sharing space with trans people violates the rights of non-transgender people.

Trans women are women. Trans men are men. Non-binary genders are real. We face violence and discrimination in almost every aspect of life. We are not a threat. And we have a right to belong in this country and in shelters. We deserve access to health care.

To fight back against these attacks, here are three things you can do:

Check-in: Ask the transgender and non-binary people in your life how they are and what support they need.

Speak-up: Ask candidates for office and elected officials how they will respond to the violence against transgender people.

Support: Reach out to trans-led organizations and ask how you can be a part of the fight in your own community.

Transgender and non-binary people are a part of our country as voters, as taxpayers, as students, as parents, and as employees. We cannot be erased, no matter what this administration does.