By Sonia Elks
LONDON, May 16 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Celebrities revealed their abortion stories and ordinary Americans stood up to be counted as a backlash against tough new U.S. abortion laws gathered pace on Thursday and a social media campaign went viral.
The online campaign to protect access to abortion followed moves by Alabama and other U.S. states to heavily restrict a woman’s right to end her pregnancy, a perennial battleground in U.S. politics and touchstone of modern feminism.
Galvanised by the threat, movie stars divulged their own painful stories, warning against any return to backstreet abortions or men legislating over women’s bodies.
FACTBOX – Alabama abortion ban triggers Twitter reaction storm
On social media, hundreds of ordinary Americans answered a call by talk show host Busy Philipps to share stories and “end the shame”. Philipps launched the hashtag #youknowme aimed at showing how common it is for women to end their pregnancies.
“1 in 4 women have had an abortion. Many people think they don’t know someone who has, but #youknowme,” the 39-year-old wrote in a post on Twitter.
One day after its launch, nearly 50,000 people had liked or shared the post and almost 2,000 users had posted responses, including deeply personal accounts of their own abortions.
A recent spate of anti-abortion laws has thrust the emotional debate back to the very forefront of national politics in the run-up to the 2020 U.S. presidential elections.
