As grueling and sometimes disheartening as the fight to restore abortion access in Texas became, I knew there was nowhere else in the world I would have rather been than at the side of the fearless women and providers fighting to keep clinics open and ensure all women had access to safe, compassionate abortion care. The stories of women who were denied care because of Texas’ law kept me motivated to continue fighting the bogus claims and dehumanizing rhetoric of politicians working to pass sham clinic shutdown laws.

More than 40 years after the Supreme Court ruled that women have a constitutional right to abortion, the fight is still not over. A state that is okay forcing a woman to sleep in her car to get the health care she is constitutionally entitled to — much less that forces her to take matters into her own hands — has relegated her to second-class citizenship and ignored her humanity. This is all the more true for women of color, who are not only more likely to face barriers to access, but told in countless other ways that they don’t matter. Growing up, I saw that my mother’s inability to afford certain medications or treatments not only prolonged the time it took to recover from a given illness, but also reinforced the notion that she didn’t deserve well-being on par with someone who could afford them. I promised then that I would do whatever I could to change this, and I will continue working with reproductive rights leaders to ensure all women, of all backgrounds and status, have control of their bodies and their futures.

The landmark ruling in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt took a crucial step in this direction by affirming a woman’s right to compassion, respect, and dignity in accessing abortion care. In the weeks since, we’ve seen abortion restrictions crumble in five states, yet hundreds of baseless and oppressive abortion laws across the nation continue to prevent a truly just and equal America. So today we celebrate the affirmation of women’s constitutional rights. Tomorrow we’ll get back to work.