Photo: Rachel Murray/Getty
Reproductive rightsare under fire. The Trump administrationenacted a rule that stops doctors from talking to their patients about abortionsand also criticized abortion-rights bills in thePresident’s State of the Union speech— and that’s just been in the last month. But actressElizabeth Banks, who works withthe Center for Reproductive Rights, says thatreproductive rightsare far more popular than we’re led to believe.
“I think that there’s a vocal minority, but the fact remains that nearly 1 in 4 American women will have an abortion in their lifetime,” says Banks, who hosted the Center’s first Los Angeles fundraising banquet on Wednesday night. “Most people know a woman who has had an abortion, and for the majority of abortions, that decision is made my women who are already mothers, who are trying to plan their families. And this is about families, not just women. Seven in ten Americans support abortion rights, so it’s not that controversial.”
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“It undermines women’s rights, patients’ rights. It keeps important information from women,” she says. “I think that silencing doctors’ abilities to speak freely with their patients violates the ethical standards of doctors. It affects so many women in need of this information and this care.”
“We don’t have any of these rules for men,” she adds. “Men don’t go to the doctor and have a doctor not be able to tell them about all their options for care.”
The Center, along with Banks, is fighting against these changes andfor women’s reproductive rightsbecause “we believe they are human rights,” she says.
“Women should have bodily autonomy, and there is no equality for women without them being able to decide when and with whom to bear children.”
(L-R) Heidi Lindelof, Busy Philipps, Elizabeth Banks, Ali Rushfield, Sarah Jones and Nancy Northup at the Center for Reproductive Rights’ Inaugural Los Angeles Benefit.Rachel Murray/Getty
“We talk about reproductive rights in the show because Lindy West wrote about it so beautifully in her book,” Banks says. “Lindy is a really vocal supporter of reproductive rights, and has been throughout her life, and her decision to have an abortion was an important one in forming her sense of herself.”
“The storyline isShrillis really just a woman wanting to live her best life and is up against a crazy system that values what she looks like more than what her body can do,” Banks says. “It’s a system that constantly diminishes us and takes away our sense of autonomy in the world. We should have agency over our whole lives.”
source: people.com
