by Lois Uttley, co-founder of Raising Women's Voices for the Health Care We Need.

August 26 is usually celebrated as the anniversary of Women’s Suffrage in the United States – the day women finally got the vote.  This year, let’s put a new twist on this anniversary!

We’re calling itWomen’s Health Equality Day, and committing ourselves to using  women’s voting power to defend the landmark programs that were enacted over the last 45 years and are protecting and advancing women’s health.

Historic advances like Medicaid, Medicare and Title X (the national family planning program) are threatened by extremist policies being promoted in Congress and state Legislatures. So is the Affordable Care Act health reform law, which is working to make health insurance coverage more affordable for women and our families, stop insurance company discrimination against women and start addressing health disparities that affect women of color, low-income women, young women and LGBTQ people.

We helping to launch a new multi-organizational campaign, HERVotes,that will mobilize women voters to exercise our hard-won voting power to protect women’s health and economic rights against these extremist attacks. From now through Election Day 2012, we will be reaching out to women – mothers, sisters, daughters, friends, neighbors and co-workers -- in order to increase voter turnout and bring forward women’s voices in the national discussion on jobs, health care and family economic security.

This post is part of the multi-organizational #HERvotes blog carnival.