As the Republican National Convention is underway in Milwaukee this week, and in the wake of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump tapping JD Vance, with his anti-abortion bonafides, as his running mate, I have never been so clear-eyed that we must consolidate behind the Biden-Harris ticket as our only chance to meet this moment and protect our democracy.

Democrats cannot protect reproductive freedom without having President Joe Bidens back.

Last Friday, I joined Biden at a rally in Detroit. The president was strong and in command, and clearly articulated why he is the leader this country needs.

Meanwhile, the threat of a second Trump presidency is a five-alarm fire for reproductive freedom and democracy itself. If he wins, Trump is poised to dismantle our democracy and end rights and freedoms we hold dear.

This isnt speculation. Project 2025, the over 900-page document created by at least 140 people who worked for him , outlines a plan to make it happen starting on day one of a second Trump administration.

The blueprint includes language and policies that propagate the belief that life begins at conception. This personhood language could ban not only abortion, but also some forms of birth control and assisted fertility treatments like IVF.

And its not just our reproductive freedom at stake. The plan amounts to a full-scale takeover of the federal government that dismantles our democratic norms and consolidates power in the executive office.

There is every reason to believe Trump would follow through with it. He already worked hand-in-hand with Republicans in Congress to stack the federal judiciary including the Supreme Court with extremist judges who have carried out his agenda, including ending Roe v. Wade.

Meanwhile, the GOPs platform committee just confirmed what we already knew. They want to ban abortion nationwide and theyre trying to use the 14th Amendment to do it.

But heres the thing: We can stop his dangerous agenda.

By sending Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris back to the White House and cementing reproductive freedom-backing majorities in Congress, we can restore the federal right to abortion and expand access nationwide. The president has promised to sign a bill to do just that into law.

We can ensure that Trump never has the chance to appoint more Supreme Court justices, which would set our country back and endanger our rights for decades to come. And we can intervene before he puts our country on a path towards authoritarianism we may never come back from.

This election is ultimately about our freedom, and making that clear to voters is our path to victory.

The Republican Party is responsible for taking away our right to an abortion and ushering in bans in nearly half of states in our country. People are facing horrific, and life-threatening situations every day because of these bans.

Voters are furious and theyre ready to do something about it.

Support for legal abortion has only increased since Roe was overturned. Reproductive freedom has won every single time it has been directly on the ballot, and it has helped candidates up and down the ticket realize victory time and again.

According to a June AP-NORC poll , a vast majority of Americans support legal abortion for any reason, up 12 points from the same poll two years ago. The Kaiser Family Foundation reported this spring that abortion is the top motivating issue for one in eight voters, with over half of registered voters saying the November election will have a major impact on abortion access.

Democrats have a clear path to victory and we have an administration whose work fighting tooth and nail to protect abortion access speaks to the values of voters nationwide.

Biden and Harris have made clear that we need to pass a law restoring the protections of Roe v. Wade to undo the dangerous abortion bans across the country and protect abortion access in all 50 states. Biden has promised to sign a bill to do just that into law if its sent to his desk.

In the meantime, Biden is taking executive action to protect access where possible: protecting a persons right to emergency abortion care, expanding and strengthening access to birth control, and defending access to medication abortion.

And lets not forget, Biden tasked Harris a fierce champion of abortion rights and access to lead this fight.

The contrast between Biden and Trump could not be more clear. When voters understand the stakes, they reject Trump and his extremism and back Biden. We saw that in 2020, and polling data since supports it.

We must tell this story, shine a light on the stakes of this race, energize our base, and show up for this ticket. Biden and Harris will win this November if we do, but it will take every one of us coming together and stepping up to make it happen.

What happens next is in our hands. We can and we must win, but we cannot do it without Biden and Harris.