Celebrities Launch Push for a "Bill of Reproductive Rights"

As The Hill is reporting, a number of celebrities have signed on to help push for a "Bill of Reproductive Rights" in the face of efforts by the Republicans and their Christian Taliban allies to ban abortion and block the Obama administration's birth-control mandate.  Among those seeking to stop the anti-women's' rights agenda of the GOP are Meryl Streep, Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick, Amy Poehler.  I applaud their efforts and truly believe that it is far past time that conservative Christians cease being allowed to force their toxic religious views into the civil laws.  Here are some story excerpts:

Meryl Streep, Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick, Amy Poehler and others mounted an online push for a "Bill of Reproductive Rights" on Tuesday in collaboration with an international abortion-rights group. 

The campaign does not target Republicans or the GOP by name, but its message clearly echoes the "war on women" charge leveled at the right. 

"Every day, the opponents of our fundamental reproductive rights are passing laws designed to take those rights away," Streep says in a video for the campaign.    "They're shutting down doctors and clinics across the nation. They're making it nearly impossible for millions of women to get the essential healthcare they need," Streep says.

The GOP has made it a priority to end public healthcare funding for Planned Parenthood because the group also provides abortions.   Republicans have also sought to restrict abortion and stop the Obama administration from ordering most employers to cover free birth control in their health plans, arguing the policy hampers religious freedom.

Along the way, members of the GOP have experienced backlash for gaffes on abortion and other women's health issues.   . . . . a Republican lawmaker in Georgia countered opponents of a proposed 20-week abortion ban by citing his "heartbreaking" experience delivering stillborn calves and pigs on his farm.

The speech prompted many to say that Rep. Terry England (Auburn) had compared women to farm animals — something Bacon and wife Sedgwick spoke of in a video released Tuesday.   "Kyra, have you seen this? This lawmaker in Georgia is calling women farm animals," Bacon says. "[And] there's this other guy who says this whole contraception thing wouldn't be a problem if women would just stop having sex." 

The petition they tout, from the Center for Reproductive Rights, states that Americans have the right to "make our own decisions about our reproductive health and future, free from intrusion or coercion."   It also outlines a right to "a full range of safe, affordable and readily accessible reproductive healthcare," including birth control, abortion and pregnancy care.