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Celebrities, activists and political figures react to US Supreme Court's leaked opinion to gut abortion rights

May 4, 2022, 22:29 IST
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Bill Gates and Cher are two of many celebrities criticizing the leaked supreme court opinion.Amy Sussman / BBMA2020 / Getty Images for dcp / Getty Images
  • Politico reported that a leaked Supreme Court opinion suggests that Roe v. Wade may be overturned.
  • Roe v. Wade is a landmark 1973 ruling that allowed the constitutional right to abortion for women.
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"Star Trek" actor George Takei said, "we have to unite and strike back."

George Takei attends the Los Angeles Premiere of Focus Features' "Blue Bayou" at DGA Theater Complex on September 14, 2021 in Los Angeles, California.Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images

"Those motherf—s really did it," the "Star Trek" actor wrote on Twitter Monday. "First they came for Black voters, then they targeted LGBTQ+ families. Now, women of America, they're overruling Roe v. Wade."

"We have to unite and strike back. Take to the streets. Overwhelm them at the ballot box. They have gone too damn far."

Actress Amber Tamblyn said that the Supreme Court has "declared war on more than half of its citizens."

Amber TamblynDia Dipasupil/Getty Images

"Tonight our highest court declared war on more than half of its citizens— women and birthing people everywhere," she tweeted Monday.

"The overturning of Roe V Wade is a political act of violence against us and we will not accept it. We will fight and we will not stop. EVER," she added.

Actor and activist Alyssa Milano responded by tweeting alarm emojis.

Emma McIntyre/Getty Images

"Oh my fucking god!!" she added Monday on Twitter.

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Milano had previously warned her fans about attempts to roll back reproductive rights in the US.

In a speech at a pro-abortion rights rally in Los Angeles in October 2021, the actress and activist said in part, "Women are under attack, almost entirely by men."

She said the Supreme Court was "packed with abusers" and said it was going to "just gonna sit by and let it all happen."

Rosanna Arquette said she's "lost many people in my life for standing up to these fascists."

"I've lost many people in my life for standing up to these fascists. And I will continue doing so," she tweeted.

Arquette has been vocally pro-choice in the past. In September 2021, she tweeted that she had declined a role in a "film I love cause it shoots in Texas," which had recently passed an anti-abortion law at the time.

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Disney star Josh Gad tweeted that he is "hearing" and "feeling that rage."

Josh Gad attends Sony Pictures' "Spider-Man: No Way Home" Los Angeles Premiere on December 13, 2021 in Los Angeles, California.Emma McIntyre/Getty Images

"To all scared women tonight, I will fight for you & with you," he wrote Tuesday on Twitter. "I will fight like hell. We all must."

"The Handmaid's Tale" actor Ever Carradine responded with a quote from the series.

Carradine, who plays Naomi Putnam in "The Handmaid's Tale," tweeted a quote from the Margaret Atwood novel, on which the show is based, when she spoke about the news on social media.

She wrote, "Under His Eye," which according to Cosmopolitan is how the Handmaids, or women in the series, say goodbye to each other. "By extension, the phrase suggests that someone—a Guardian, a Commander, a fellow Handmaid, God—is always watching," Cosmo added.

The popular dystopian series is set in a sexist totalitarian society where women are child-bearing slaves.

Carradine added later: "I'm already on this show. I don't want to live it."

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Lynda Carter, the original Wonder Woman, told her followers to "never give up."

Lynda CarterAssociated Press

"Community" star Yvette Nicole Brown called out people who didn't vote for presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016.

COMMUNITY -- "Mixology Certification" Episode 209 -- Pictured: Yvette Nicole Brown as ShirleyJordin Althaus/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images

She tweeted on Monday, "If you are upset that #RoeVWade is about to be overturned by the Supreme Court but you didn't vote in 2016 or you voted for Trump because you didn't like the smart lady, YOU did this w/your apathy or your decision to choose an imp for President."

"YOU gave him THREE SCOTUS seats," Brown added.

"The View" co-host Ana Navarro-Cárdenas also tweeted "Elections have consequences" in response to the leaked opinion.

Hillary Clinton herself weighed into the decision, calling it "not surprising. But still outrageous."

Hillary Clinton attends the 2022 Met Gala.Jamie McCarthy / Staff / Getty Images

The 2016 Democratic presidential nominee described the opinion on Twitter Monday as "a direct assault on the dignity, rights, & lives of women, not to mention decades of settled law."

"It will kill and subjugate women even as a vast majority of Americans think abortion should be legal," she continued. "What an utter disgrace."

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Kathy Griffin said Clinton 'never would've let Roe be overturned.'

Kathy Griffin at the 2020 Queerties in Los Angeles.Tibrina Hobson/Getty Images

Comedian Kathy Griffin also shared her support for former presidential candidate Hilary Clinton after the leaked opinion.

"Roe v Wade has been overturned," Griffin wrote in a tweet with a picture of Clinton at the Met Gala last night. "Yes I know. Stay in my lane. Well I'd love to be posting about the met gala but this is the only attendee I care about."

She added: "President Hillary Clinton never would've let Roe be overturned."

Griffin has been a supporter of Clinton for years especially during her campaign in the 2016 presidential election.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and actress Mia Farrow said the decision is pushing America back "50 years"

Leon Neal/Getty Images

After the news broke, Mia Farrow tweeted a series of posts critical of the decision.

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"Looks like we are going back 50 years," she wrote on Monday. "Here comes the back street abortionists and of course, the coat hangers."

The 77-year-old actress added in a later tweet: "Forced birth? Not really. I lived through the abortion ban years. The fact is that there wont be fewer abortions Women will continue to get the abortion they need. Except those abortions wont be safe. Many, many women and girls will be mutilated or die."

Meanwhile, Bill Gates, co-founder of tech giant Microsoft, shared a tweet Tuesday expressing his astonishment.

"I was shocked to wake up to the news this morning," Gates wrote. "A reversal of Roe v. Wade would set us back 50 years and disproportionately impact the most vulnerable women in society. I support a woman's right to make their own decisions about their health care."

Cher called the Supreme Court "political puppets" and said "the mafia are more honest"

Music legend Cher called the Supreme Court "political puppets" during a series of tweets on Tuesday slamming the Court's decision.

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"REPUBLICANS MAY HAVE FINALLY GOTTEN THEIR WISH. AFTER 49 years," Cher said in her first tweet after the leaked report.

She then said that when her mother was young, she'd often hear phrases like: "keep em barefoot & pregnant" and "women don't have" brains for business.

"The Good Place" star Jameela Jamil says she's "so disgusted" by the leaked opinion

Jameela Jamil attends the 2019 Emmys.Dan MacMedan/WireImage

Jameela Jamil shared an Instagram post Tuesday, slamming the decision. In the post, she shared a picture of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her quote about abortion.

"The decision whether or not to bear a child is central to a woman's life, to her well-being and dignity. It is a decision she must make for herself," Bader Ginsburg's quote read. "When the government controls that decision for her, she is being treated as less than a full adult human responsible for her own choices."

In the caption of the post, "The Good Place" star went on to write that the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade affects "people of all genders who can become pregnant," especially those who do have the money for "safe alternatives" such as flying to another country to get an abortion.

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"I'm so sorry. I'm so disgusted. We have time to turn this around," the actress continued. "But we need to get motivated politically. Stop screaming at the wrong people. Start organizing to put the right people in place to protect us from the ACTUAL bad people threatening the freedom of HALF THE COUNTRY."

Actress and activist Sophia Bush called the Supreme Court "ideological nuts"

"One Tree Hill" star Sophia Bush responded to a picture of barricades being put up around the Supreme Court building following the leaked opinion.

"How nice that these ideological nuts who don't care about democracy or the will of the people — who overwhelmingly support a woman's right to choose — can feel safe inside whilst they eviscerate our rights and condemn women to die," Bush tweeted on Monday.

She added: "Abortion will never end. Only safe abortions."

Bush has been vocal about abortions before. In 2019, she was part of a group of celebrities led by Milano, who threatened to stop working in Georgia to stop an abortion ban bill from being passed. The bill was passed but was ultimately ruled unconstitutional.

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WWE wrestler Kevin Nash said he hopes there will be funding for childcare for women who are no longer able to get an abortion.

Former professional wrestler Kevin Nash tweeted that he's a "believer that a woman's body is her body" in response to the news.

He continued: "She alone carries the right to bring a child into this world. I see our Supreme Court feels differently. Hope funding for the 600k- 1M abortions that will now need proper care is being planned for in scope and monetarily."

Majorie Taylor Greene said on Twitter that she supports the leaked opinion

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).Megan Varner/Getty Images

After the leaked opinion was released, there were some who supported the decision. Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene spoke out in support on Monday night.

She posted a video on Twitter reading the leaked report, which she said was "the best news of our lifetime."

"There's a draft opinion out now to overturn Roe v. Wade and this is a great victory," the congresswoman added. "This is a great victory for God and the unborn who have been innocently slain for years."

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Greene has been a vocal opponent of abortion.

Whoopi Goldberg slammed the decision in a rant on "The View"

Whoopi Goldberg attends A Celebration of Barbara Walters Cocktail Reception Red Carpet at the Four Seasons Restaurant on May 14, 2014 in New York City.D Dipasupil/Getty Images

During Tuesday's episode of "The View," co-host Whoopi Goldberg criticized the leaked opinion saying that this is a "human issue" rather than a "religious" one.

"You got people telling me I gotta wear a mask, or don't wear a mask, or do this" Goldberg said during a discussion from the show posted on YouTube (around the 8:40 mark in the clip). "Everybody wants to tell me what to do but you won't let me make my decision about my body."

Goldberg continued: "[Women] got tired of tripping over [other] women in public bathrooms who were giving themselves abortions because there was nowhere safe, nowhere clean, nowhere to go. This law came about because people wanted people to have somewhere safe and somewhere clean. It has nothing to do about your religion. This is not a religious issue, this is a human issue."

Goldberg has previously written an essay about an abortion she had when she was 14 in Angela Bonavoglia's book "The Choices We Made The Choices We Made: Twenty-Five Women and Men Speak Out About Abortion."

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Phoebe Bridgers shared that she received an abortion last year and encouraged her followers to donate to an abortion fund

Phoebe Bridgers attends the 2022 Costume Institute Benefit celebrating In America: An Anthology of Fashion at Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 02, 2022 in New York City.Sean Zanni/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

On her Instagram Story on Tuesday, Phoebe Bridgers shared a link to a Cut article showing abortion funds, which are organizations that help patients get abortion care.

"I had an abortion in October of last year while I was on tour," the 27-year-old musician captioned the post which was also shared on Twitter. "I went to Planned Parenthood where they gave me the abortion pill. It was easy. Everyone deserves that kind of access. Here's a big list of places you can donate to right now."

Several other celebrities, such as "The Mandalorian" star Pedro Pascal, have shared similar articles to encourage their followers to donate.

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