Alyssa Milano Teams with Rep. Jayapal to Protest Texas Heartbeat Law: This Is the Most Dangerous Time Women Have Ever Faced

Phillip Faraone//Getty Images for Politicon/AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
Phillip Faraone//Getty Images for Politicon/AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
Dr. Susan Berry

Actress and left-wing activist Alyssa Milano partnered with “Squad” member Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) Tuesday evening for an Instagram Live event on the topic of abortion rights and how to fight against the new Texas Heartbeat Act.

“I think that this is probably one of the most dangerous times we’ve ever faced as women — definitely since I’ve been alive,” Alyssa Milano said during the event.

“Women who have the money can travel to another state to have an abortion — to have a safe legal abortion,” the Who’s the Boss and Charmed star said. “The women in Texas who do not have that privilege will be forced — and I’m calling it the forced pregnancy law — because we know that it has nothing to do with a heartbeat because it has been scientifically proven time and time again that that is an electrical pulse. It is not yet a formed heart.”

Watch below: 

Milano has attacked the Texas law on Twitter and called for Congress to pass the Equal Rights Amendment, which would enshrine abortion in the Constitution.

While the abortion industry and its allies frequently claim abortion is a constitutional right per Roe v. Wade and subsequent Supreme Court decisions, in Roe, the Court actually created a right to abortion, though none exists in the Constitution.

“I don’t begrudge anybody their choice. If they choose to have a baby, if they choose not to have a baby — but the point is, it needs to be that pregnant person’s choice,” Rep. Jayapal said during the live event with Milano.

“Texas has proven Abigail Adams right. She said, ‘Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could,'” Milano said after the Supreme Count ruling.  “If men have power over our very bodies, they are the definition of tyrants. Pass the Equal Rights Amendment. Fucking do it now.”

Jayapal, who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, invited her Twitter followers Monday to tune in to Instagram Live “on the cruel, harmful, and restrictive Texas abortion ban and how we can fight for the right to choose.”

Milano is not new to organizing Hollywood elites and the film industry against states that pass pro-life legislation.

In May 2019, the former star of Netflix’s Insatiable pushed for a boycott of the state of Georgia after Gov. Brian Kemp (R) signed his state’s “heartbeat” abortion ban.

Milano also called for a “sex strike,” urging women to abstain from sex with men and claiming, “Our reproductive rights are being erased.”

“Until women have legal control over our own bodies we just cannot risk pregnancy,” she continued. “JOIN ME by not having sex until we get bodily autonomy back.”

Jayapal’s fellow “Squad” member, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) also tweeted Friday regarding the new Texas law that “Christian extremists are passing forced birth laws to intimidate & cut off abortion services.”

On Wednesday, Texas became the first state in the nation to enact a “Heartbeat” abortion law, banning abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected, generally at about six weeks’ gestation.

In a last-minute effort to block the law, abortion providers applied to the U.S. Supreme Court for an injunction, but the Court declined to block it, 5-4, allowing the Texas abortion law to stand.

The new law also contains a unique enforcement mechanism whereby any private citizen may file a civil lawsuit against an abortion provider or any other individual who “aids or abets” a “criminal abortion.”

However, Judge Maya Guerra Gamble of the District Court in Travis County, Texas, granted Planned Parenthood’s application for a temporary restraining order (TRO) against Texas Right to Life, which spearheaded the new law, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision.

As Breitbart News reported:

The TRO blocks not only Texas Right to Life but up to 100 private individuals. The judge announced her intention to block the law entirely, but the order itself covers only those 100 individuals. For lawsuits being brought under the new law, the question will be if any of them are “persons in active concert and participation with” Texas Right to Life. If so, up to 100 of them would be blocked. But private citizens who are not actively working with the pro-life organization are still free to bring private lawsuits.

Gamble said the Texas law “creates a probable, irreparable, and imminent injury in the interim for which Plaintiffs and their physicians, staff, and patients throughout Texas have no adequate remedy at law if Plaintiffs, their physicians, and staff are subjected to private enforcement lawsuits against them under S.B. 8.”

The TRO is in effect until September 17. A hearing for a preliminary injunction has been set for September 13.

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