Following the announcement of Georgia’s strict new anti-abortion fetal ‘heartbeat’ laws, banning abortion after the point when a heartbeat can be detected (often as early as six weeks into a pregnancy) – #MeToo advocate Alyssa Milano has called for a ‘sex strike.’
Taking to Twitter, the Charmed actress wrote, “Our reproductive rights are being erased. Until women have legal control over our own bodies we just cannot risk pregnancy. JOIN ME by not having sex until we get bodily autonomy back. I’m calling for a #SexStrike.”
“We need to understand how dire the situation is across the country,” Milano told The Associated Press on Saturday of the reasoning behind her call to action. “It’s reminding people that we have control over our own bodies and how we use them.”
Citing Iroquois women, who refused to have sex in the 1600s protesting against unregulated warfare, and Liberian women, who used a sex strike in 2003 as a way to end to a long-running civil war, Milano says her protest is no new idea.
Despite receiving support from some, including actress Bette Midler, others say Milano’s efforts are misguided and suggest women only have sex as a favour to men. “My husband is as outraged as I am. Why should we not have sex? This strike may mean well and contain cheap “feel good” reactions but it pushes a sexist narrative that sex is something WE give to men as a form of currency. That is not empowering. At all,” one woman wrote on Twitter in response.
“Listen I understand your point but why, when losing “reproductive rights”, should I ALSO have to forfeit having sex at all?” another asked.
In response to the criticism, Milano told AP that it doesn’t bother her and that her tweet is getting the desired response: “getting people to talk about the war on women.”
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