Okay, Mark Ruffalo, you’ve caught my attention again. Aside from your beautiful face ( c’mon people, HAVE YOU LOOKED AT HIM?!), your support to end fracking has been so on point. And now you’ve lent your voice to reproductive rights. You gorgeous man, your political activism and sultry salt-n-pepa hair have done me in.
(Sidenote: Sorry Ruffz for that objectification from me. It’s just really hard to reign it in when your face and your bod AND your politics are so lovely. Le sighhh. But back to the news!)
Last Saturday, more than 100 pro-choice activists gathered outside Mississippi’s last-standing abortion clinic, Jackson’s Women’s Health Organization. The protest was put together by pro-choice groups the Hell No Campaign, Mississippi Now, Wake Up Mississippi, the Abortion Rights Freedom Writers, and Stoppatriarchy.org.
Rally supporter at the Jackson, Miss. clinic
At the event, a statement from Mark Ruffalo, which is featured on Stop Patriarchy’s tumblr, was read aloud. In Ruffalo’s speech, he talks about how his mother went through a traumatic, illegal abortion, which he describes as, “a relic of an America that was not free nor equal nor very kind.” The speech said that he was taken aback by his mother’s experience and couldn’t understand the lack of humanity shown by America’s society that forced women into hasty and unsafe abortions. “Today is no different,” wrote Ruffalo.
Read an excerpt of Ruffalo’s statement below:
“My own mother fought to make herself more than a possession; she lived her life as a mother who chose when she would have children, and a wife who could earn a living if she so chose. I want my daughters to enjoy that same choice, I don’t want to turn back the hands of time to when women shuttled across state lines in the thick of night to resolve an unwanted pregnancy, in a cheap hotel room just south of the state line. Where a transaction of $600 cash becomes the worth of a young woman’s life. So that is why I am lending my voice to you and your movement today.”
He closes out his letter by saying, “I invite you to find your voice and let it be known that you stand for abortion rights and the dignity of a woman to be the master of her life and body.”
Gosh Ruffalo, you make it RUFF for me not to like you!
Aside from Ruffalo’s statement, other statements were read from Vagina Monologues creator Eve Ensler, and mama feminista herself, who we all abso-freaking-lutely adore here at BUST, Gloria Steinem.
As reported in The Clarion Ledger, the Jackson clinic will remain open through a court order next spring, while it challenges legislation that requires abortion providers to be given admitting privileges to local hospitals.
Thanks to The Clarion Ledger, MSNBC, MSN, Stoppatriarchy, Tumblr, and Youtube
Photos via MSNBC
