Scarlett Johansson Praises Planned Parenthood, Says Initiatives To Take Away Services Is ‘Nuts’
Scarlett Johansson is making the most of her high-profile status as a major movie star these days, speaking out in the latest edition of Cosmopolitan about how backward it is that the U.S. wants to cut funding for Planned Parenthood services that could save lives.
“There are countries at war, there’s terrorism, global warming, and we’re like, ‘We should definitely cut the budget for Planned Parenthood. Let’s take away the availability of women’s health initiatives!'” said Johansson. “It’s nuts. We’re talking about preventing cervical and breast cancers.”
The Avengers star says she used to go to Planned Parenthood when she was younger, and it wasn’t just for birth control. The group supplies many more services than that to women of all ages, and to take them away, Scarlett says, could be detrimental to the health and well-being of many girls and women.
“All my girlfriends did – not just for birth control but for Pap smears and breast exams. You read about the rise of back-alley abortions, women having to mutilate themselves and teenagers having to seek help in unsafe conditions, and for what?! We’re moving backward when we’re supposed to be moving forward,” Johansson said.
Scarlett starred in a video supporting the organization recently, adding her voice to a slew of stars including Lena Dunham, Connie Britton, Elizabeth Banks, and Maggie Gyllenhaal. Jennifer Lawrence has also lent support to Planned Parenthood, saying she never would have been able to obtain birth control without them.
“For many people, especially those with low incomes, Planned Parenthood is their only source of healthcare,” Johansson says in the spot.
Scarlett also spoke recently about her feelings regarding women in Hollywood and equal pay, something that has become a hot topic in recent months and has led to several celebrities voicing their opinions about it, including Jennifer Lawrence. Lawrence penned an essay about getting paid less than her male peers for Lena Dunham’s newsletter, Lenny, and received quite a bit of backlash.
“Some news show called my essay a ‘bratty display’ and I was like, thank you for proving my point. Would you have called a man a brat? I was very clear: My problems are not relatable. This is not about money. I don’t need money, I have plenty of money, I’m already overpaid. What I was trying to write about was how my own mentality was getting in my own way,” Lawrence told Entertainment Weekly.
Johansson says that, personally, she doesn’t feel comfortable talking about her own income, but prefers to engage in a conversation about equal pay on a larger scale.
“I think every woman has [been underpaid], but unless I’m addressing it as a larger problem, for me to talk about my own personal experience with it feels a little obnoxious. It’s part of a larger conversation about feminism in general,” Scarlett told Cosmopolitan.
At the moment, Scarlett Johansson is focused on filming her newest project, Ghost In The Shell, in which she plays a female cyborg dedicated to stopping extremists from doing damage to cyber technology. The movie is filming in New Zealand and is reportedly causing some traffic issues there, but a local spokesperson for the Transport Agency says that while it’s going slow, traffic is still moving.
“There are currently some traffic delays around the Victoria St area due to a road closure for filming. While it is slow, traffic is still moving.”
The film is based on the extremely popular Manga series and has been in the works for quite some time, but had some difficulties finding the right writer for the script. Jonathan Herman (Straight Outta Compton) was brought on board last year to pen the screenplay.
[Photo by Anthony Harvey/Getty Images]
