That’s certainly one way of sticking it to the man. Bette Midler took to social media this week to suggest women go on a sexual strike to fight back against their reproductive rights being taken away in Texas’ new anti-abortion bill.
“I suggest that all women refuse to have sex with men until they are guaranteed the right to choose by Congress,” the icon tweeted on Thursday, just on day after Texas’ restrictive anti-abortion law — which prohibits women from obtaining an abortion for almost any reason after six weeks of pregnancy — went into effect.
Naturally, Midler’s stance set off a firestorm of debate and conversation in the replies, with a number of famous faces also chiming in. “My dad actually suggested that decades ago,” wrote Nancy Sinatra of her father Frank Sinatra, while Rosanna Arquette commented warily, “but then again men with angry Guns and rape not being a much of a crime in Texas .watch this space.”
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The Hello, Dolly star went on to follow up her original tweet with retweets of thoughts by Greta Thunburg, Jameela Jamil and Bradley Whitford regarding a woman’s right to choose, as well as quotes from an impassioned letter written by historian and professor Heather Cox Richardson.
“‘A state has undermined the power of the federal government to protect civil rights,” she tweeted, quoting Richardson’s words. “‘It has given individuals who disagree with one particular right the power to take it away from their neighbors.’”
Read Midler’s original tweets regarding the controversial abortion ban below.
That same day, the actress reacted to the Supreme Court’s refusal to block the law, tweeting, “Why do #antivaxxers and #antimaskers get to live the ‘my body, my choice’ life, but pregnant women are not allowed to? How is this fair?”
Next, Midler is set to reunite with Kathy Najimy and Sarah Jessica Parker for the long-awaited sequel to Hocus Pocus.
I suggest that all women refuse to have sex with men until they are guaranteed the right to choose by Congress.
— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) September 3, 2021
effort, because they believe women are so used to being gaslit that of course, they’ll just tolerate it. They did the thing in the dead of night without care or effort because they genuinely believe that they’re only women, and they deserve what they get.
Advertisement— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) September 4, 2021
“A state has undermined the power of the federal government to protect civil rights. It has given individuals who disagree with one particular right the power to take it away from their neighbors.”https://t.co/MEGwtiPVjf
— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) September 4, 2021
