Last week, I overheard a moving conversation in the waiting room of my mobile health center.

A middle-aged Colombian woman said, “My daughter got a contraceptive implant in her arm at this clinic a few years ago. She’s married and working and in school. It’s the greatest thing. We both think so. I know she’ll have a baby some time…but now wouldn’t be good.”

An elderly Jamaican Black woman, in response, “Wow. If only we’d had something like that when we were young. I think I would have gotten to go to college.”

Birth control saves lives. It helps the dreams of my patients come true. The Colombian and Jamaican women in my waiting room didn’t have a choice, but their daughters’ and granddaughters’ generation – my generation – does.

Please preserve the fundamental right to choose if, when, how, and with whom my patients get pregnant. Lives depend on it.