By Nancy Keenan, NARAL

Today is the anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

Thirty-nine years ago today, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized a woman’s constitutional right to choose safe, legal abortion. This most personal, private medical decision belongs to her and her doctor—not politicians, not government.

In honor of this momentous day for American women, NARAL Pro-Choice America is asking pro-choice bloggers and activists to join us for the seventh annual Blog for Choice Day.

Blog for Choice Day gets more people reading and talking about reproductive rights online. It’s a way for America’s pro-choice majority to share our stories and our strength—and there’s still time for you to sign up to participate.

This year, we’re asking the question: “What will you do to help elect pro-choice candidates in 2012?”

We hope you join us, and write from the heart. Whether you’re running for office yourself, canvassing for a pro-choice congressional or state legislative candidate, registering people to vote, or simply chatting with your friends and family about why voting pro-choice matters, we want to hear your plans for pro-choice victories at the polls.

And if I know anything about pro-choice Americans, it’s that we’re fired up and ready and let our friends and neighbors know—one conversation at a time—why the 2012 election is crucial to the future of American women’s freedom and privacy.

Indeed, what happens this November will determine whether we stop the War on Women, or whether the attacks that we saw in 2011 grow and multiply.

Make no mistake: 2011 brought some of the worst legislative attacks on a woman’s right to choose that I have ever seen.

Anti-choice politicians ignored the American people’s call to focus on jobs and the economy, and instead made attacking a woman’s right to make personal, private medical decisions one of their “highest legislative priorities.”

The U.S. House of Representatives held more choice-related votes in 2011 than in any year since 2000, and states enacted 69 anti-choice measures—one shy of the record number set in 1999.

Yet, as bad as 2011 was, the very same politicians behind the War on Women are ready to resume the legislative attacks in 2012 here in Washington, D.C. and in state legislatures throughout the country.

Already, NARAL Pro-Choice America and our network of state affiliates are hard at work preparing for yet another year of attacks on everything from women’s insurance coverage of abortion to public funding for birth control and cancer screenings.

We’re also hard at work to make sure the War on Women doesn’t go beyond 2012—and that’s where your plans to elect pro-choice candidates up and down the ticket come in.

To paraphrase anti-choice former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-Mass.), we like being able to fire politicians who put attacking choice ahead of creating jobs and growing our economy.

Choice will be a key issue in the 2012 elections. You don’t have to take my word for it: a recent poll conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research on our behalf shows that President Obama’s pro-choice position is shaping up to be a key asset for him.

The poll revealed a key bloc of women voters who supported the president in 2008 but are currently unsure about supporting his reelection. Choice provides an opening for President Obama and other Democrats to win back these critical women voters, and thus create a sharp contrast with anti-choice Republicans.

So, we have quite the contrast to make, as all the Republican presidential candidates oppose a woman’s right to choose.

That includes Gov. Romney, the current frontrunner.

Romney wants to see Roe v. Wade overturned, and threatens to “eliminate Title X family-planning programs,” which include federal funding for birth control and cancer screenings. As Massachusetts governor, he even vetoed a bill giving rape survivors information about and timely access to emergency contraception.

The difference between Gov. Romney’s record on contraception and President Obama’s couldn’t be starker.

Furthermore, the Obama administration resisted pressure from anti-contraception groups to allow many employers, including universities and hospitals, to refuse to cover birth control. As a result, millions of Americans will get access to contraception—and they will not have to ask their bosses for permission.

We’ll work day-in and day-out to make sure these key women voters—and all voters—know that Gov. Romney is far outside the American mainstream when it comes to choice.

We’ll also work to keep the U.S. Senate under pro-choice leadership and send more pro-choice representatives to the House.

In the coming weeks and months, NARAL Pro-Choice America PAC will endorse pro-choice candidates for the House and Senate. These include incumbents who have stood up against the War on Women time and again, as well as pro-choice challengers who are taking on anti-choice incumbents.

We’re making sure that voters know where their candidates stand on choice. Those politicians who voted for the War on Women can run, but they can’t hide from their bad records.

Next month, we’ll unveil our 2012 Voter Guide, so that you can learn more about which candidates are heroes and which ones are zeroes.

America is a majority pro-choice country, but we need the energy and the turnout to ensure that our elected officials reflect our nation’s core values.

That energy grows, conversation by conversation, in millions of living rooms throughout the country, until we see a pro-choice tidal wave at the polls this November.

Together, our conversations will end the War on Women.

Are you in?

Related Stories:

Roe v. Wade Turns 39, Will It See 40?

A Love Letter to My Future Son on an Anniversary of Choice

Unsafe Abortions on the Rise