Pro-abortion activist and actress Alyssa Milano has unveiled a map of the United States that she insists will help Hollywood studios, actors, producers, and directors decide “where it is safe for women to work” after several states passed laws restricting abortions after a heartbeat is detected.
“Following the passage of a number of draconian attacks on a pregnant person’s right to choose in 2019, including those in states in which the motion picture and television industries conduct significant business, it has become apparent that those in our industry need to be able to make informed choices,” Milano and activist co-author Ben Jackson said in a statement published by Variety, which released the map along with Milano and Jackson.
Alyssa Milano has inserted herself as the face of the left-wing campaign against the abortion laws being enacted in several states this year. The Insatiable star went so far as to launch a sex strike last month in protest of Georgia’s abortion law.
“I don’t think there’s a human on the planet that’s not pro-life. Nobody wants to get an abortion. Nobody. We are all pro-life, but there are circumstances that we cannot avoid,” the Netflix star told CNN’s Chris Cuomo. “There’s a mother’s health. There’s just not being ready and what that means financially and for someone’s destiny. This is an economic issue.”
Milano’s map is just the beginning. The actress is reportedly teaming with Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms to develop a mobile app producers in Georgia can use to “guarantee we can spend money in places that will not fund voter suppression, inequality and the stripping away of anyone’s rights.”
“A woman’s health care decisions should remain between her, her doctor and her maker. Atlanta has a robust tech community that could potentially assist with leveraging the kind of data and information Alyssa is discussing,” Mayor Bottoms told Variety. “I walk into this house that someone owns and rents out for production, and in front of the sink is a ‘Brian Kemp for Governor’ kitchen mat,’ she said. “So I think to myself, every time we shoot on location outside of Atlanta, we are funding a hurtful policy.”
According to the MPAA, the film industry in Georgia represents roughly 92,000 jobs, and more than $9 billion in film production spending — which is why it has come to be known as the “Hollywood of the South.”
“The original idea was to prevent Gov. Kemp from signing this bill,” Milano said. “We in the entertainment industry pride ourselves on inclusivity, equality and choice. All of these really symbolic, important things that we understand become a beacon for the country to follow suit,” she concluded, noting that her research helps serve “this very tricky balance of not wanting to ever cause families harm in the state of Georgia, but being aware enough to know that the only thing that changes the state of policy is usually money.”
Since Gov. Kemp signed Georgia’s Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act into law, AMC network, which films The Walking Dead in the state, has added its name to a growing list of Hollywood studios, including Disney, Netflix, WarnerMedia — the parent company of CNN, HBO, and TNT — who’ve threatened to pull film projects and production out of Georgia over the new abortion law. To date, no major studio has actually pulled projects from the state.
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