NANCY CATHERINE EZZELL was a devoted wife and partner to her husband, with whom she served as co-editor of this newspaper.

She was a working mother of six children, the last of whom was born in 1954. Without fail, she prepared three hearty sitdown meals a day on a budget stretched so thin you could read this newspaper through it. There was always enough to set another place at the table. Leftovers were always used, returning in another form for the next meal.

Our family attended church every Sunday. My mother was a faithful member of the choir and a willing volunteer whenever needed. Both of my parents served as deacons.

My mother taught us dozens of card games and every version of dominoes that existed. On long family trips in the car (and in those days, they all seemed long), she sang with us, told stories, played word games—anything to keep a family of six fairly strongwilled kids entertained, engaged, and educated.

I am under no illusion that our family life was easy or idyllic, but we knew we were safe, cared-for, and well-loved.

Throughout her life, and to her dying day, Nancy Catherine Ezzell was a generous contributor to many charitable causes. One of the organizations to which she was most faithful was Planned Parenthood. Whether she did so because that nonprofit organization provided free or affordable access to birth control; or reproductive healthcare; or sex education; or pregnancy testing and counseling; or prenatal care; or testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections; and yes, abortion…I can only guess.

But knowing my mother, and her consistently sensible and thoughtful approach to both life’s challenges and its joys, I assume that she very purposefully supported all of the above.

Mom grew up in a time when contraception was neither reliable nor easily available. The first oral contraceptive was approved by the FDA in 1960, a few years after my youngest brother was born and my mother’s childbearing years had ended. Within two years of its initial distribution, 1.2 million American women were using birth control pills. By choice or necessity—or both.

It liberated an entire generation, and generations beyond. Some women chose to have families while still young. Some chose to pursue higher education, explore the world, establish careers, run for public office—and either waited to have children or opted out altogether.

Others were denied those choices. Some were unable to gain access to birth control. Some were unable to afford it. Some were taught that birth control was a sin, and shamed or punished if they sought its protection regardless.

For some, birth control simply failed. Their pregnancies were either unplanned or unwanted, or worse, posed a threat to their own health and life. Others were too young or too vulnerable to take advantage of those choices. Some were victims of rape or incest, who either chose, or were expected—incomprehensibly—to bear the child of their assailant.

First, they were violated by friends or relatives or complete strangers, and then, they were violated again, when denied the basic right of privacy and choice.

I do not know why my mother was such a loyal supporter of Planned Parenthood, but I am certain that she believed every woman was entitled to choose motherhood, and with the help of her physician and partner, to make sound medical decisions about her own life, and that of her child.

I can only imagine my mother’s horrified reaction—which I and millions of other women and men share—to the Supreme Court’s ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, and to the subsequent threats from Justice Clarence Thomas to also target the now well-established protections for contraceptive rights and same-sex marriage.

My friend and fellow publisher, Mary Henkel Judson, vented her own anger recently in the Port Aransas South Jetty. In a column titled, “Step away from my privates!” she wrote:

Under this gray hair are red-headed roots, and they are on fire.

That there is even a Supreme Court ruling allowing women the right to contraception is beyond the pale. That the U.S. House felt the need to pass a bill last week that would prevent states from banning birth control is even further beyond the pale.

That nearly the entire Republican delegation from Texas voted against it is, well, I’m sputtering. There are no printable words for this….

And yet, printable words she did, in fact, find, issuing this firm disclosure to her readers: I am anti-abortion and pro-choice.

It is a position I myself share, with no discomfort whatsoever. Choice goes beyond a wom

Choice goes beyond a woman’s decision to end a pregnancy or not. It includes the decision on when to start a family and how small or large she would like that family to be.

No one, other than the woman’s husband or partner, has the right to participate in those decisions.

How dare anyone, most especially a male-dominated legislative body, attempt to usurp or even involve themselves in such decisions. They are none of their business. Step away from my privates!

Judson also asked the very reasonable question, Why are only women targeted by antiabortionists when men participate in the reproductive process as well?

Note that of the 100 seats in the U.S. Senate, only 24 are held by women. In the U.S. House of Representatives, of the 435 seats, only 120 are held by women. And in both cases, this is called progress.

Clearly, not enough progress, because these men are meddling where they have no right and ought not to be.

Last night’s primary election in Kansas marked the first-time voters had weighed in on abortion since the Supreme Court ruling aborting Roe. “Kansans voted resoundingly against an amendment that would have permitted the state’s Republican-controlled legislature to ban abortion without exceptions,” The Atlantic Daily reported.

That landslide vote is a start—a first, resolute step in the battle to once again establish the basic right of choice for all women. It is also a good reminder to all of us—regardless of age or sex or race or religion—to remain vigilant and engaged and well-informed, and to refuse to remain silent when the rights we value are under attack.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This one is for you, Mom, with all of my love and admiration.