Well, it's here. The U.S. Supreme Court announced it will review Mississippi's 15-week abortion ban, a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade and nearly 50 years of precedent since that landmark decision. This case is the biggest threat to abortion rights we've seen since Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the court.

We knew this challenge would come, and now it's here. The threat to abortion access is no longer hypothetical. It's on the calendar. And now it's incumbent on us in Minnesota to protect the right to abortion in our state — for the sake of our communities and our surrounding states.

With the new court and 29 states hostile to abortion rights, an estimated 25 million women of reproductive age are at risk of losing abortion access if Roe is overturned. And because of systemic racism in this country, the greatest barriers to abortion fall on those who already have less access to health care.

That includes the five-state region where our organization cares for patients every day. The Nebraska and Iowa legislatures have made no secret of their intent to ban abortion. And North Dakota and South Dakota have laws on the books (called "trigger laws") that would immediately end abortion access if Roe v. Wade falls; already today, these two states have only one abortion provider left, making abortion out of reach for people who are without resources to travel or take time away from work and family.

And we're not immune in Minnesota. Anti-abortion politicians continue to try to ban abortion in our state, and it is because of decisive leadership from the Minnesota House majority and Gov. Tim Walz that abortion access is protected in our state today.

We all deserve the opportunity to control our lives — our bodies, our families and our life's path, including whether and when to become a parent. The hopeful news is that we can take action at the state level to protect abortion and provide a haven for abortion rights in our region.

To do this, we need state leaders who support reproductive freedom and who will work quickly to pass the Protect Reproductive Options (PRO) Act in Minnesota. The PRO Act ensures all Minnesotans can make their own reproductive health care decisions, without interference from politicians. The legislation establishes the fundamental right to make autonomous decisions about our bodies, including our own reproductive health care, the right to birth control and the right to continue a pregnancy or to have an abortion. Without state protections for reproductive freedom, we're one election away from a legislative majority and a governor who may erode our right to abortion in Minnesota.

We now see clearly how drastically the anti-abortion movement has overreached, far beyond where the public stands on these issues. We know that any Supreme Court decision to undermine Roe would be radically out of sync with the majority in our country; polling shows only 13% of Americans overall — and only 31% of Republicans — want to overturn the Roe standard.

We must stop this political overreach. Minnesotans who oppose overturning Roe need to know that with the new conservative Supreme Court majority, we must now act to protect safe and legal abortion at the state level. It's time for us — the majority who support abortion rights — to stop being sidelined and to make our voices heard, loud and clear.

Sarah Stoesz is president of Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota Action Fund. She has led the regional Planned Parenthood affiliate for 20 years.