Time’s up on controlling women’s bodies

When I saw the Time’s Up letter this week, I couldn’t help but raise a fist.

Three hundred of Hollywood’s most influential women are using their massive platform to bring resources to countless people across the country who face sexual harassment and assault. Time’s Up can take the courage of the #MeToo movement to the next level, and bring measurable change to women’s lives through action.

Changing women’s lives is what we’ve been doing at Planned Parenthood for 101 years. A lot of people think our purpose is to give women the information they need to prevent pregnancy. And information has definitely been given — one in five women in the U.S. has come to Planned Parenthood for the information and health care they need.

But the idea behind Planned Parenthood was always bigger than birth control — from day one it was about women being able to control their own lives. It was the idea that women’s bodies and pleasure are their own. Until that’s true, women cannot be free and they cannot be equal.

We should all be working toward the goal of equality, not just because all people deserve to live and work free of the fear of violence and discrimination, regardless of their gender. When women are in charge of their own bodies and lives, we make our country and the world a better place to live.

So why are so many powerful people uncomfortable with the idea of men being held accountable for the way they treat women (hi, Matt Damon)? Why do so many powerful people spend so much of their time and energy trying to stop women from getting birth control, safe, legal abortion, or just going to Planned Parenthood for health care (hi, Donald Trump, Mike Pence, Republican congressional leaders, politicians in way too many statehouses)?

Because they know that when women are in control of their own bodies — when they don’t have to worry about a retaliatory boss or about being pregnant when they don’t want to be — they’ll be free to plan their careers, make choices about and for their families, and build their lives as they see fit. Equally.

Last year marked the inauguration of a president with a history of preying on women, caught on tape in his own words. We saw that same administration move swiftly to restrict women’s ability to control their own bodies and futures, both in this country and around the world. The administration even tried everything in its power to stop young undocumented women from getting the safe abortions they are legally entitled to seek.

But last year also marked the Women’s March, the largest demonstration in U.S. history. On every continent and across the country, people marched by the millions for equality and justice.

While anti-women’s health members of Congress tried three separate times to pass bills to block people who rely on Medicaid from coming to Planned Parenthood for care, our supporters flooded town halls and Congress’ phone lines. All three bills failed.

More women than ever are running for office, determined to see policies that protect and support their ability to make decisions about their own lives.

But our work is nowhere near finished. If 2017 taught us anything, it is that for far too many women, control over their bodies is still a big idea that doesn’t apply to much of their daily lives.

We have to fight, together, for women to be in full control — whether in writer’s rooms, waiting rooms, board rooms or the rooms of Congress — and this includes relentlessly defending our ability to make the most basic, personal decisions about our lives. Demanding control over our bodies (including access to birth control and abortion) and our ability to be equal and free in the workplace and the world — they’re one and the same.

As Planned Parenthood board member and leading culture creator Shonda Rhimes said about Time’s Up, “We just reached this conclusion in our heads that, damn it, everything is possible. Why shouldn’t it be?”