Celebrities continue to join the ordinary Americans sharing their own personal abortion stories as backlash against the tough new laws continues to gather pace alongside a viral social media campaign.
The online campaign to protect access to abortion continued to gain momentum on Thursday following 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.
Galvanized by the threat, movie stars divulged their own painful stories, warning against any return to backstreet abortions or men legislating over women's bodies.
On social media, hundreds of ordinary Americans also answered a call by talk show host Busy Philipps to share stories and 'end the shame'.
Busy Philipps launched a social media campaign to share abortion stories and 'end the shame'. Actress Minka Kelly was among those to reveal her pain as backlash against the tough new laws continued to gather pace
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.
Alabama's governor on Wednesday signed a bill aiming to ban abortions in almost all cases, including rape and incest, with doctors who perform the procedure facing up to 99 years in jail.
Legislation to restrict abortion rights has been introduced this year in 16 U.S. states as conservatives attempt to strike down a landmark 1973 Supreme Court ruling that established a woman's right to terminate her pregnancy.
On social media, hundreds of ordinary Americans also answered a call by talk show host Busy Philipps to share stories and 'end the shame' using the hashtag #youknowme
Actress Minka Kelly revealed via a lengthy Instagram post that she had an abortion at a young age and
