Ever since Alabama and Georgia’s abortion laws, or rather abortion bans, made headlines across the world, actress Busy Phillips has been vocal about women’s rights starting a viral Twitter movement #YouKnowMe. On June 4 the actress continued her campaigning, delivering a powerful testimony to Congress regarding abortion, in which she detailed getting an abortion at the age of 15.
Philipps first discussed her abortion on her E! television show, Busy Tonight. “The statistic is that one in four women will have an abortion before age 45,” she said on air, tearing up. “That statistic sometimes surprises people. And maybe you’re sitting there thinking, I don’t know a woman who would have an abortion. Well, you know me.”
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As a teen, Phillips had an abortion in Arizona and since then the state has adopted strict measures to discourage women from undergoing the procedure. “If I were that same 15-year-old in Arizona today, legally I would have to get parental consent,” she said when testifying on Capitol Hill. “I would be forced to undergo a medically unnecessary ultrasound, go to a state-mandated in-person counselling session designed solely to shame me into changing my mind, and then take a state-mandated 24-hour time-out to make sure I really know what I wanted. And finally, I would be forced to give this state a reason why.”
Phillips is asserting that no woman, no matter what age, should have to provide the state with a reason why they choose to get an abortion. Simply put: every woman should have bodily autonomy in any circumstance. “I am so sad that we have to sit here in front of a row of politicians and give deeply personal statements,” she added. “Because the ‘why’ doesn’t matter. It should not matter. I am a human being that deserves autonomy in this country that calls itself free, and choices that a human being makes about their own bodies should not be legislated by strangers who can’t possibly know or understand each individual’s circumstances or beliefs.”
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Well done Busy 👏👏👏
