Watch Elizabeth Banks and 6 Other Actresses Perform Real, Powerful Abortion Stories

Of these abortions, more than one-third of all adult women in this country are estimated to have had at least one, and 18 percent of those obtaining abortions are teenagers. “And two, that those of us who are in states with a lot of restrictions really do not have the same access as women in states where abortion is more readily available”.

In honor of the 43rd anniversary of Roe v. In recent years, states such as North Carolina have restricted food stamps and unemployment insurance, instituted abstinence-based sex education curriculums and refused to expand Medicaid. “But when the public learns about the staggering intensity of such laws against abortion, which place women’s safety, autonomy and dignity in jeopardy, they become outraged”. Ninety percent of counties in our state lack an abortion clinic.

March for Life, a group of abortion rights opponents, plans to go ahead Friday with its annual rally and march to the Supreme Court despite a state of emergency and blizzard warning for Washington, D.C. Faced with the possibility that the state restrictions will be upheld and other women may find themselves without easy reproductive access, the abortion testimonials have taken on a new tinge of anger and desperation.

Not only is the Helms amendment a barrier to abortion access in times of conflict, it also blocks access to abortion for women and girls who live in abject poverty and face hunger and malnutrition, for adolescent girls who are forced to marry at a young age, and for those who face a unsafe pregnancy that could result in death or grave illness.

Even without new laws, however, the ones we now have significantly curtail a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions. The U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed and reaffirmed that medical decisions should be left to women and their families, not politicians. Bonow is the leader of the #ShoutYourAbortion movement, an online grassroots campaign to get ordinary women to discuss their abortions as a way to fight back against what she calls a “culture of fear” created by anti-abortion activists.

The current Congress has voted 20 times to limit women’s health-care choices, and in the previous year alone, the U.S. House of Representatives passed sweeping bills to ban all abortions after 20 weeks, allow employers to discriminate against workers for using birth control and restrict reproductive health coverage in private insurance.

On March 2, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a Texas case challenging two laws “substantially similar” to those the Tennessee clinics are seeking to overturn.

While the videos are well made and feature extremely talented actresses, they fail to contribute anything of substance to the abortion debate.

“We are going to be hearing most likely from another candidate this year who’s a woman, and her messaging is going to be very, very different than what we’re going to hear from Carly on this”, Mancini observes, referring to Hillary Clinton. A decision is expected by June.

The study highlights the lack of female voice in public discussions around the issue, which can shape major policies and affect the lives of millions of women.