In commemoration of yesterday’s 41st anniversary of the Supreme Court case that legalized abortion across the United States, Mark Ruffalo has released a video with the Center for Reproductive Rights in support of women’s reproductive rights.

In the two-minute spot, the Avengers co-star reminds viewers that the frequent alternative to legal abortion is illegal abortion. He recalls his mother’s experience of the latter: “For my teenage self, it was very startling that people would have to search out doctors at night miles and miles and miles away from their home in a closed-down doctor’s office or motel room…. I couldn’t believe it and I was appalled by it and I saw the pain that it caused my mother.”

He adds, “There’s a common sense and a wisdom and a decency in women that needs to be upheld and doesn’t warrant being pushed back thirty years into the whole nightmare that brought about the abortion rights movement.”

Ruffalo’s no stranger to speaking out on behalf of reproductive rights. Last year, he spoke at the site of Mississippi’s last abortion clinic, framing the argument for abortion in terms of respect for a woman’s intelligence and independence. Of the years before 1973, he said, “It was a time when women were seen as second-rate citizens who were not smart enough, nor responsible enough, nor capable enough to make decisions about their lives. It was a time that deserved to be left behind, and leave it behind we did, or so it seemed. We made abortion and a woman’s ability to be her own master a right.”

We heart him. Watch Ruffalo’s new video below: