In Massachusetts, pro-choice Rep. Ed Markey is facing off against anti-choice Rep. Stephen Lynch in the Democratic primary in a special election for Secretary of State John Kerry's former Senate seat, and the gloves are coming off.

In a recent debate, Rep. Lynch tried to mislead voters about Rep. Markey's position and distract them from his own anti-choice record!

Rep. Markey is committed to protecting women's reproductive health and freedom, and he has consistently voted pro-choice for decades.

Rep. Markey wasn't fazed by Rep. Lynch's attempts to smear his position:

"I have voted consistently pro-choice for 30 years in the congress, 30 years Steve, and that's why Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America have endorsed me."

Clearly, Rep. Lynch knows he's in trouble because the majority of independent voters want a candidate who supports a woman's right to choose, and his extreme anti-choice record speaks for itself.

That's why we've gone full-out in our efforts to help elect pro-choice Rep. Markey to the Senate!

We've already made thousands of phone calls in Massachusetts and our canvass team is on the ground getting ready to knock on doors and educate voters about why Rep. Markey is the only candidate they can trust to protect women's freedom and privacy.

The special election is less than a week away. Make sure your friends in Massachusetts know why they must elect Rep. Ed Markey and keep this Senate seat pro-choice!

Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, stopped by MSNBC's "Hardball with Chris Matthews" to talk about the controversial trial of Kermit Gosnell:

"There is no one more outraged than me personally, and certainly our organization works every single day to make certain that women are not victimized by people like Dr. Kermit Gosnell. What we need is safe and legal access to medical care for women seeking abortion. The thing that has allowed the people like Gosnell to continue is unnecessary restrictions on women going to the safe clinics with reputable medical care."

We were all shocked and horrified when we learned about the Boston Marathon bombings last week. In the NARAL Pro-Choice America office, each of us checked in on friends and family from the area and tried to come to grips with what had happened.

While we'll keep the families affected by the attacks in our thoughts and prayers, we know that the best way to move forward is to get back to our normal activities and not let the attacks change our day-to-day freedoms.

Right now, that means we're back to politics as usual - electing men and women who believe that it's not the government's role to tell women whether, when, and with whom they should start a family.

Two candidates are about to face off in the Democratic primary for the Senate special election to fill Secretary of State Kerry's former Senate seat in the great state of Massachusetts. We've gone all-in to see that Rep. Ed Markey - and not anti-choice Rep. Stephen Lynch - comes out a winner.

In fact, we have a team on the ground right now that's getting ready to make calls and knock on doors in pockets of the state where voter turnout will be critical.

Starting today and through the primary on April 30, we plan to hold conversations with thousands of pro-choice voters - voters who may sit out this election unless they hear from us. And with recent polling showing that not only is the race tightening up, but that anti-choice Rep. Lynch is even leading among likely independent voters - contacting them is vital.

Why is this race so important? Rep. Lynch has voted to deny servicewomen access to abortion services and against President Obama's health-reform law, which will increase women's access to family-planning services, contraception, and maternity care.

We can't take a chance - we must send someone to the Senate who we can count on 100 percent to protect and expand women's access to reproductive-health care, from birth control to abortion.

If you or someone you know can volunteer with us, sign up today. As you can imagine, it's going to take hundreds of people volunteering thousands of hours to go door to door. But it will be worth it - these neighbor to neighbor conversations are the most effective way to educate and turnout voters.

Our team can't wait to get started! Keep up with their activities by following us on Twitter and liking us on Facebook.

Paid for by NARAL Pro-Choice America, www.ProChoiceAmerica.org, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

I recently heard Katelyn Campbell's inspiring story, and just had to share it with you.

Katelyn is a high school student in West Virginia. Her school recently hosted an "abstinence-only" program that that lied to students about birth control and denies them the information they need to stay healthy. The presenter, Pam Stenzel, says taking birth control can lead to becoming "sterile or dead." Her program is truly outrageous.

Katelyn fought back against these lies. She talked with the local newspaper, and even went on CNN.

How did the school principal George Aulenbacher respond? He tried to shut her down. Katelyn says Aulenbacher called her into his office to berate her and threatened to call her future college to tell them she has "bad character" and is a "backstabber."

But Katelyn didn't back down. She knows, like we do, that teens need accurate information about abstinence and birth control so that they can make the responsible decisions that are right for them. After all, one in four teen girls in the U.S. has an STD, and one third of young women will become pregnant before they're 20 years old.

So here's a big high five to Katelyn, and all the other young people like her who are standing up for their rights!

And props to Wellesley College for letting Katelyn know that it's happy to welcome her in the fall.

How can you show your support? Tell the Board of Education and superintendent of schools in Kanawha County to censure Principal Aulenbacher and support comprehensive sex education.

What would you do if you had to choose between a life-saving abortion and prison?

That's the decision women will be forced to make if anti-choice groups are successful in their goal to ban abortion regardless of a woman's personal situation or heartbreaking circumstance.

Anti-choice organizations across the country spend countless efforts and resources fighting for policies that would ban abortion without exceptions for rape, incest, and a woman's health and safety. And if they're successful, any woman could be forced to choose between her life and her freedom.

Abortion bans have already been passed in North Dakota and Arkansas.

Policies that ban abortion care with no exceptions endanger women's lives and force them to make impossible decisions at the hands of extreme anti-choice politicians.

In El Salvador, where abortion is illegal in all cases, one woman will be forced to choose between life-saving abortion care and time in prison.

According to Salon:

"The 22-year-old mother of one, identified only as Beatriz, is four-and-a-half months pregnant, but her doctors have confirmed that the fetus has anencephaly (developing without a brain and certain parts of the skull) and that the pregnancy [may face a tragic outcome]. In addition to the diagnosis [of a fetal anomaly], Beatriz is experiencing critical health complications related to her lupus and kidney disease."

The hospital treating Beatriz has requested that the government grant permission for life-saving abortion care, but so far, no permission has been granted.

That's why it's so important to make sure all women have access to safe, legal reproductive-health care and abortion services. Our lives may depend on it.

The Gosnell trial tells the story of everything that's dangerous about taking away access to abortion for women who are so desperate that they feel they have nowhere else to turn.

Let's start with Kermit Gosnell. What he did to women is reprehensible. The conditions in his clinic were horrific. No one should ever have to endure the kind of unethical, life-threatening treatment to which Gosnell routinely subjected women. It's also shocking that the state continued to ignore repeated complaints about his clinic. There is no question that Gosnell should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

We may never know why Gosnell preyed on women and put their lives at risk. But what we do know is why women would turn to someone like him instead of a reputable provider elsewhere: anti-choice politics have put safe, affordable, legal abortion care out of reach for many women.

Almost as soon as abortion became legal with the Roe v. Wade decision - which should have ended the days of back-alley abortions - anti-choice lawmakers restricted low-income women's access to comprehensive reproductive-health care by prohibiting the use of federal Medicaid funds for abortion services.

The effects of forcing poor women to scrape together hundreds or thousands of dollars to pay for an abortion have become crystal clear through the Gosnell horror story. Gosnell offered his services at a lower cost than was available at safe providers. And when it takes women months to save for an abortion, they may be forced to wait until they are later in pregnancy.

One woman said she turned to Gosnell because the anti-choice protesters outside Planned Parenthood were too intimidating. Anti-choice activists are known for their aggressive strategy of literally stalking women outside of clinics. Clearly, their tactics can force women to take desperate measures.

We'll only prevent women from facing this kind of desperation if we address the root causes and end barriers to abortion care.

States likes Pennsylvania show how excessive restrictions make it more difficult for women to get the care that they need - not more safe. In the past few decades, the number of abortion providers dwindled from 50 to just 13. There are no abortion providers between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh, which are hours apart, with the vast majority of clinics concentrated in the southeastern corner of the state in Philadelphia.

This tragic story highlights what we ought to be talking about - improving women's access to safe, affordable, and legal abortion regardless of income or geography.

Instead, anti-choice activists are trying to exploit the situation by saying there is some vast pro-choice media black-out conspiracy. Except that reporters like Irin Carmon have soundly debunked this false claim.

The horrific conditions in Gosnell's clinic are an example of what happens to women and our basic dignity when abortion isn't available through safe and legal providers. It is why we fight every day.

Today, staff and volunteers of NARAL Pro-Choice America joined Planned Parenthood and National Women's Law Center to deliver your comments in support of no-cost birth control to the Department of Health and Human Services. Together, we submitted more than 338,000 comments!

Hundreds of thousands of pro-choice activists submitted comments about why no-cost birth control is essential for women across the country who may otherwise not be able to afford it.

Access to birth control is so important because the ability to control when, how, and with whom to start a family empowers women to chart their own courses and achieve their goals in life. That's why we love the no-cost birth control benefit under Obamacare!

Anti-choice opponents tried to flood HHS with anti-birth control comments.

But we know that most Americans support the no-cost birth control policy and we're making our pro-choice voices heard!

Because when women have access to birth control they have the power to choose their futures.

Just when we thought we'd seen it all - anti-choice lobbyists in Arizona are trying to defund Planned Parenthood by exploiting the state's move to expand Medicaid through Obamacare.

Available as part of the Affordable Care Act, states can choose to expand Medicaid and provide health-care coverage to millions of uninsured low-income Americans.

These services include access to preventive-health services, including contraception, maternity care, and well-woman visits.

Unfortunately, rather than accept this opportunity to increase women's access to essential reproductive-health care, extreme anti-choice groups in Arizona are trying to change the Medicaid package so that it prohibits funds from going to Planned Parenthood.

These anti-choice tactics could torpedo the legislation all together since the bill needs bi-partisan support.

If the legislation is derailed or if it somehow survives with the Planned Parenthood defunding language intact, the outcome would be the reduction of essential reproductive-health care services for women across the state of Arizona. Blocking funds for Planned Parenthood in Arizona means fewer cancer screenings, STD testing and treatments and HIV tests - for low-income women and men - services that save lives and keep people healthy.

Sadly, these extreme anti-choice opponents never miss an opportunity to attack women's reproductive freedom, even at the expense of the thousands of women that could completely lose access to health-care if the Medicaid expansion doesn't go through.

As we say again and again, anti-choice politicians clearly didn't learn their lesson from the 2012 War on Women. As a result, those politicians are launching wave after wave of legislative attacks on choice in the states this year.

These range from "personhood" legislation and unnecessary and burdensome TRAP regulations to unconstitutional outright abortion bans.

Far from chastened by their setbacks last fall, the anti-choice movement has redoubled its efforts and will clearly stop at nothing to take women's advancements in reproductive health back to the Middle Ages.

Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, stopped by MSNBC to talk with Thomas Roberts about current anti-choice attacks in the states:

"What we're seeing is a disturbing pattern. Women in America are living in two vastly different realities. Some places where they actually have the full range of reproductive choices that allow them the independence and autonomy that we define as uniquely American, and others where [anti-choice politicians] are saying 'No, you're a second-class citizen, and you're not allowed to make the choices that men would make between them and their doctors.' What we know as women, is that we are people and we will fight for our choices, and we'll fight to make these choices with our families and with our doctors."

What these anti-choice politicians try to forget is that advocates for women have the values of freedom and privacy on our side.

Seven in 10 Americans support Roe v. Wade, and when politicians try to get between women and their doctors, women will make their voices heard.