Today is the day I celebrate another year of being less punished than I could have been for the circumstance of having been born with a uterus. Hooray! (Next up: tampon subsidies and period leave.) In honor of the day, I’d like to remind everyone of a few basic statistics about abortion from the Guttmacher Institute:

• More than half of pregnancies among American women are unintended, and about four in 10 of these are terminated by abortion.

• At least half of American women will experience an unintended pregnancy by age 45, and, at current rates, one in 10 women will have an abortion by age 20, one in four by age 30 and three in 10 by age 45.

• 37% of women obtaining abortions identify as Protestant and 28% as Catholic.

• About 61% of abortions are obtained by women who have one or more children.

• 54% of women who have abortions had used a contraceptive method (usually the condom or the pill) during the month they became pregnant.

The Obama White House released a statement this morning, saying “We reaffirm our steadfast commitment to protecting a woman’s access to safe, affordable health care and her constitutional right to privacy, including the right to reproductive freedom.”

And our own Washington senator Patty Murray, who we fucking love for a million reasons, released her own statement this morning as well, reminding everyone that this right is under attack more than ever. Last year, she points out, was “yet another record-breaking year of state legislatures passing restrictive legislation barring women’s access to abortion services.” She continued: “In fact, in the past three years, the United States has enacted more of these restrictions than in the previous ten years combined.” You can read her entire statement below the jump.

Meanwhile, in Washington, DC, right-to-life activists are marching on the Supreme Court in frigid temperatures that have forced them to shorten or cancel some of their planned activities. And as we all know, terrible weather is God’s way of saying He doesn’t approve of what you’re doing. Listen to His divine will, anti-choicers! Turn away from your evil ways!

As we mark the 41st anniversary of the historic Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, another type of history is being made. In 2013, our nation saw yet another record-breaking year of state legislatures passing restrictive legislation barring women’s access to abortion services. In fact, in the past three years, the United States has enacted more of these restrictions than in the previous ten years combined.

While I am very proud to represent a state that is consistently ranked number one among states that strive to provide women with the tools and resources to make informed health decisions on their own, I remain very disheartened year after year to see other states fall further and further behind. These haven’t just been attacks on a woman’s right to choose, but it’s been an all-out assault on everything from shaming pregnant women to drafting politically-driven legislation intended to create geographical roadblocks for low-income and racial minorities wishing to access safe reproductive services. Not surprisingly, these states that have enacted some of the most extreme and archaic restrictions are also the same states that fail to achieve even mediocre standards when it comes to critical issues like education and the economy.

And if this week’s conversation being held by national Republicans is any indication, it appears the extreme right-wing of this country has no intention of letting up after their record-breaking year attacking women. To combat these misguided attempts we need to not only continue the fight to keep women in the driver’s seat of their private decisions, but we must also continue investing in quality health care and education options, like those made possible through the Affordable Care Act, in order to prevent this deeply personal and troubling life decision too many women still have to make.