Celebrities Have Had it Up to Here With This Anti-Woman Crap

By Erin Gloria Ryan | October 9, 2012 | 5:55pm

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Today, the Center for Reproductive Rights has launched a star-heavy initiative called Draw the Line, which controversially asserts that women are people who should be able to make decisions about their own bodies. It seems crazy that we’ve arrived at a place where this is a necessary thing that we have to tell our elected officials (“HEY! DID YOU KNOW I HAVE NERVE ENDINGS, MEMORIES, AND FEELINGS AT ONLY TWENTYSOMETHING YEARS OLD?!), but these are crazy times.

If you’ve felt yourself overwhelmed by a blinding, temple-squeezing rage-on when reading about the neverending parade of reproductive health care fuckery, there’s a petition for that. Draw the Line encourages people as pissed off as you have been over the last couple years to finally declare “Oh, FUCK NO. Enough of this” and sign what’s being touted as the Bill of Reproductive Rights. From the Center,

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The Bill of Reproductive Rights states:
We the people of the United States hereby assert the following as fundamental human rights that no government may deny, and that our governments at every level must guarantee and safeguard for all.

1. The right to make our own decisions about our reproductive health and future, free from intrusion or coercion by any government, group, or individual.

2. The right to a full range of safe, affordable, and readily accessible reproductive health care-including pregnancy care, preventive services, contraception, abortion, and fertility treatment-and accurate information about all of the above.

3. The right to be free from discrimination in access to reproductive health care or on the basis of our reproductive decisions.

Reading this sort of reminds me of how I feel when I read the instructions for a new set of a product with a very clear purpose, like iPod speakers, and there’s one extremely bizarre guideline written in bold. FOR EXTERNAL USE ONLY. DO NOT EAT. You know that someone, at some point tried to eat a set of speakers and had a terrible outcome, but given the fact that I don’t know what prompted the rule, I can only imagine the possible scenarios that led to this, and laugh. But in this case, I know the backstory — lawmakers really did, and are attempting to block women from being able to make their own reproductive health care decisions. And instead of laughing, I kind of want to Ophelia myself in the Hudson River.

But the CRR isn’t alone in its quest to get lawmakers to acknowledge that women are people. They’ve has gathered up an impressive stable of celebrities who are just as pissed as you are, including Kevin Bacon, Sandra Bernhard, your imaginary boyfriend Billy Crudup, Olympia Dukakis, Jenna Fischer, Caroline Kennedy, Lisa Kudrow, Tea Leoni, Audra McDonald, Oliver Platt, Martha Plimpton, your imaginary best friend Amy Poehler, Kyra Sedgwick, Sarah Silverman, Meryl Streep, and Louis Zorich to unite and turn the kvetching into action. Raging with the Stars!

If you’re unfamiliar with the Center for Reproductive Rights, it’s probably because the organization spends most of its time neck deep in bullshit and doesn’t have much left over for publicity and flash, what with the fact that they’re devoting thousands of hours defending abortion and contraception rights in places run by people who think women should get permission from their husbands before they have abortions (or worse). They’ve got fingerprints all over global initiatives like working to have the UN declare preventable maternal death a human rights violation. Stateside, whenever you read about a court case challenging an archaic ladyparts-corralling law, chances are they’re either all over it or working alongside someone who is all over it. Think of them as a dark knight for America’s ladyparts. Like Batman, minus the scratchy voice and the terrible trilogy conclusion.

So, if you’re annoyed, take 5 seconds to sign the petition and get on the Center’s radar. The best way to stop the river of bullshit is to dam it with some knowledge. And the best person to calm you down when you’re about to tear your hair out is Meryl Streep.

[Center for Reproductive Rights]