What I Know For Sure About This Election: We Will Stand Together — and We Won’t Go Back

Today, our Planned Parenthood family, supporters, and patients are waking up to a reality we fought so hard to prevent.

Instead of welcoming reproductive health champion Hillary Clinton as our first female president, we saw Donald Trump take the White House.

We now face a very different future, and there is uncertainty ahead. But one thing is for sure: We will never back down, and Planned Parenthood will never stop providing the care patients need.

We have made so much progress together in the past eight years — including emerging from the worst recession we’ve had in close to a century, expanding health care coverage to more than 20 million Americans, beginning to break down barriers of discrimination and racism, and upholding marriage equality.

In the last several months, we heard a lot of rhetoric from Trump that has created a frighteningly more dangerous America for people of color — one where unlawful stop-and-frisk policies (which have been found unconstitutional) are enforced, where immigrants are at risk of facing immediate deportation, where Muslims may be banned from entering the country, and where discrimination against LGBTQ communities and disabled people is deemed acceptable.

This cannot be what it means to live in America in 2016.

It's up to us to keep fighting to protect the communities we care about. It’s up to us to fight for Planned Parenthood health centers, so they can continue to serve the people who rely on them — people who come from communities that need our continued support in this new reality: immigrants, people of color, the LGBTQ community, people of faith, and more. It's up to us to stand strong. It's up to us to make sure that Planned Parenthood health centers will be there wherever and whenever they are needed, no matter what.

Their doors will stay open because our voices get louder. Our determination grows stronger. And our commitment to protecting the rights and health care of millions of people is unwavering.

For the past 100 years, Planned Parenthood has been there for those who needed it — and even with this unthinkable news, that won't change.

In these moments, we have all a choice: Do we let callousness win, or compassion? Do we tune out, or do we engage? Shut down, or stand up?

Planned Parenthood chooses to stand up, and fight back. Even in the hardest times. Especially in the hardest times.

We will continue to stand and fight. And we're not alone. Most people believe in access to health care, reproductive services, and abortion. We have seen what our opposition is capable of and the consequences are inconceivable. You, me, and the rest of the Planned Parenthood family must — will — stop them. That's what we do.

Tags: Cecile Richards, Planned Parenthood, Donald Trump, Election 2016, Hillary Clinton