Roe v. Wade has been at the center of significant controversy for more than a half-century. And for those who want access to abortions protected, it is a bittersweet anniversary.

Fifty-one years ago Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court declared a nationwide constitutional right to abortion in its Roe v. Wade decision, only to have that same court overturn the decision decades later.

"I have a lot of sadness in my heart about a day like today, because I think that Roe was an attempt to help women be on equal footing and since the day that has passed there has been a concerted effort to take that away really and have women and other people who can get pregnant being a step below being equal citizens in our country and I think it’s really super sad that we’re still fighting for this in 2024," said Michelle Casey, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Central & Western New York.

Casey says that, despite the setback, there is a major effort to not only restore a woman’s right to an abortion, but to secure even more freedoms for women, recognizing that’s a tall order. She says they’re fighting to have abortion care treated the same as any other health care and they are taking the fight directly to voters.

"If you look at the American people and what they want, they want people to have access to this vital health care," she said. "They don’t want politicians and courts deciding what kind of health care people receive, what kind of medicines should be approved or not, and especially don’t want courts and politicians to be deciding what kind of care people should be getting when their health and life are at risk."

Casey says she is happy to be living in New York state where abortion care continues to be provided, but is concerned about those states with abortion limits.

And on Monday, President Joe Biden met with his Task Force on Reproductive Healthcare Access as he makes abortion rights central to his reelection campaign. This comes just a couple days after opponents of abortion rights descended on Washington, D.C. last Friday in the annual March for Life, as some Republicans in Congress push to further restrict the procedure and fund crisis pregnancy centers.

"It takes a lot of work to convince people that every single human child, every unborn child, has a value that is too precious to ignore," Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House of Representatives, said.