Men are afforded a certain amount of privilege surrounding the realities of pregnancy,  or the possibility of an abortion. Often, young men are told to do what they want “as long as you don’t get a girl pregnant.” Meanwhile, women shoulder the reality that 45 percent of pregnancies are unintended.

Luckily, a vague societal recognition of physical agency means that no one wants to sponsor a law about abortion without a woman’s name on it (with the exception of Rep. Tony Tinderholt, R-Arlington.)

Since 2003, about 40 percent of authors and sponsors of bills adopted by the state legislature to regulate or restrict abortion have been female.  With the advent of Tinderholt’s blatantly unconstitutional HB 948 — which would criminalize all abortion — and the likelihood in our current political climate that other restrictive laws are on their way, women should focus on changing the minds of female legislators in order to protect their right to abortion. 

In 2003, three female and two male legislators kicked off Texas’s war on access by co-authoring HB 15 “The Women’s Right to Know Act.”  Patricia Harless, R-Houston, Lois Kolkhorst, R-Victoria and Diane Patrick, R-Arlington are responsible for the requirements that women seeking an abortion be given information about possible outcomes of abortion that have been found to be scientifically inaccurate, as well as view or have a sonogram described to them before observing a mandatory waiting period prior to the abortion and during the procedure. 

In the fight to preserve a woman’s right to access a safe and non-traumatizing abortion, sometimes misinformation is the biggest threat. Another female author of Texas abortion legislation HB 2, Jodie Laubenberg, R-Parker, has incorrectly stated that doing a rape kit could “clean the woman out” and prevent unwanted pregnancy, while arguing against exceptions for rape on the Senate floor.

It’s possible these female legislators aren’t aware of who actually seeks abortions in their districts. In 2013, 85.2 percent of women who obtained abortions were unmarried. Four in 10 women who obtained an abortion said that they had “completed their childbearing” and 49 percent live below the federal poverty line. 59 percent of patients who received an abortion in 2014 already had a live birth. 

In Lois Kolkhorst’s Senate District 18 there are 22,248 families living in poverty. Fifty-two percent of those families are single-parent households, right around the state average of 57 percent, the majority of which are run by women. 

These families are the ones likely to seek abortion care when the need arises, these women deserve the right legally acknowledged in Roe v. Wade to choose what happens next. 

While modern contraception has helped level the playing field, there will always be room for error. When something goes wrong, the woman is the one who must decide what happens to her body.  Abortion is a choice only a woman can make, and a choice only other women can defend. Call your female legislators. 

MacLean is a advertising and geography sophomore from Austin. She is a senior columnist. Follow her on Twitter @maclean_josie.