In 1972, the year before the Supreme Court handed down its historic Roe v. Wade decision to legalize abortion in the United States, the debut issue of Ms. Magazine published a petition signed by 53 well-known American women declaring that they had had abortions-legal or not. The campaign was designed to draw attention to the fact that making abortion illegal does not stop women from seeking abortions-it just puts women's lives at risk. By signing their names, these 53 American women challenged the stigma associated with abortion, and made a critical contribution to the struggle for its legalization.

Today, we find ourselves in another pivotal moment in the history of reproductive rights in the United States. Abortion has been legal for over 33 years, but in the past few decades, the procedure has been burdened with literally hundreds of state-level restrictions. The Hyde amendment, passed in 1976, made it illegal for federal Medicaid to pay for an abortion unless a woman's life was at risk-effectively overturning Roe v. Wade for countless low-income women in the United States. Eighty-seven percent of U.S. counties currently lack an abortion provider. Thirty-five states currently enforce parental consent or notification laws that restrict minors' access to safe abortion. Seventeen states currently have trigger laws or pre-Roe bans that will outlaw abortion at the state level if the Supreme Court were to reverse Roe v. Wade. And just last week, the Senate passed a bill that would make it a crime to for a relative or other adult to transport a minor across state lines to obtain a safe abortion-no matter what the circumstances.

According to Ms., it's high time for another "We had abortions" petition. One million American women-young, old, married, unmarried, mothers, non-mothers, students, professionals, poor, rich-have abortions every year. Yet the procedure and the women who seek it continue to be stigmatized, judged, and kept in the dark. Just as in 1972, Ms. will publish the petition in the magazine; send it to the White House, members of Congress and state legislators; and post it online. You can read the petition here, and you can sign or otherwise support it here. Because the best antidote for stigma is reality-one woman at a time.