UPDATE (4/1/2019): The so-called “heartbeat” bill was passed by Georgia lawmakers. As the Associated Press reports, the legislation makes exceptions in the case of incest and rape but only when the woman files a police report first.
The protest list has also been updated to include actors such as Tracee Ellis Ross, Tessa Thompson, Zoe Kravitz, Rashida Jones, Kerry Washington and Jason George.
Previously reported (3/29/2019): Gabrielle Union, Uzo Aduba, Don Cheadle, Essence Atkins, Yvette Nicole Brown, Kendrick Sampson are among a group of 40 celebrities who are protesting Georgia’s H.B. 481, otherwise known as the “heartbeat abortion” bill, which prohibits most abortions six weeks after conception, usually when a fetus’s heartbeat is detected.
According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the list of stars includes Rosie O’Donnell, Patton Oswalt, David Cross, Amber Tamblyn, Sean Penn, Mia Farrow, Sarah Silverman, Christina Applegate, Colin Hanks, Bradley Whitford, Alec Baldwin, Ben Stiller and Amy Schumer. Together, the stars wrote a letter to Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and Georgia House Speaker David Ralston threatening to take Hollywood money out of Georgia’s lucrative film and TV industry if the abortion bill is signed into law. The Writers Guild of America also joined the stars in protesting the bill.
Even though the letter starts with compliments regarding the state’s generosity and hospitality to the region’s film and TV industry, which has grown in the past 10 years thanks to Georgia’s tax credits, “we cannot in good conscience continue to recommend our industry remain in Georgia if H.B. 481 becomes law.”
“This dangerous and deeply-flawed bill mimics many others which have already been deemed unconstitutional. As men who identify as small-government conservatives, we remind you that government is never bigger than when it is inside a woman’s body or in her doctor’s office,” they wrote. “This bill would remove the possibility of women receiving reproductive healthcare before most even know they are pregnant and force many women to undergo unregulated, hidden procedures at great risk to their health.”
As this is a developing story, we’ll have to wait to see what Georgia’s leadership decides to do regarding this controversial bill. The state now must weigh the billions of dollars it could stand to lose from Hollywood against its ill-advised legislation over women’s autonomy.
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