Some of Hollywood’s top showrunners, TV creators, and directors have thanked the major studios for protecting their access to abortion.
In June, a new Hollywood coalition dedicated to abortion propaganda formed in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and have since been lobbying studios to have more “safety protocols” in place when operating in states that outlaw abortion. This week, the yet-to-be-named coalition put out a full-page ad in the Variety Power of Women issue thanking the studios for “fully engaging and being thought leaders with us.”
“At the end of July, more than 1500 of the industry’s top showrunners, creators and directors signed a letter asking nine major employers to lead the way and establish safety protocols for employees in abortion-ban jurisdictions after the death of Roe v. Wade,” the letter said.
“As leaders on our productions, we cannot ask people to choose between their fundamental human rights and their jobs,” it continued. “There are dozens of productions on the ground today in anti-abortion jurisdictions. Their employees need answers right now about how to safely seek reproductive health care.”
The showrunners then thanked Amazon, AMCNetworks, Apple TV+, Disney, Lionsgate, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount/CBS, and Warner Bros. Discovery.
The letter concluded with a call for the studios to translate their abortion support into urgent action, creating policies “that will keep our cast and crews safe in anti-abortion jurisdictions may be hard, but it is necessary.”
“We will continue to hold these companies accountable over the coming months,” it concluded. “This is not the last you will hear from us.”
According to Variety, the coalition includes the likes of Shonda Rhimes, Elizabeth Meriwether, Judd Apatow, Ava DuVernay, Natasha Lyonne, J.J. Abrams, Barry Jenkins, Damon Lindelof, Jordan Peele, Aaron Sorkin, David E. Kelley “and hundreds more.”
In the wake of the June decision, the movie studios largely avoided discussing abortion rights and offered no specific path forward to the coaltion.
“On Aug. 15, the showrunners group sent a second letter to the studios and their board members, offering more details about what protocols they want to see, giving a deadline of Labor Day,” noted Variety. “Since that deadline passed, no studios have announced any specific new protocols for safety on sets.”
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