Center for Reproductive Rights Announces Creative Council led by Elizabeth Banks

(Press Release) The Center for Reproductive Rights, a global human rights organization, and Elizabeth Banks, actor, director and producer, today announced the creation of the Center for Reproductive Rights Creative Council — a new initiative to harness the power of the creative community to advance reproductive rights as fundamental human rights around the world. The group will leverage their platforms, reach, and cultural influence to raise the profile of the Center’s cases and issues to educate the public and advocate for change on sexual reproductive health and rights.

“Deciding whether or when to become a parent is one of the most important life decisions we can make. It’s not a decision someone can make for anyone else,” said Elizabeth Banks, chair of the Center for Reproductive Rights Creative Council. “And, yet, anti-abortion politicians seek to pass extreme bans in the hope of reversing over 45 years of precedent to take away one of our constitutional rights. As a creative community, we will fight to keep abortion legal and accessible in the United States and work to elevate the critical role the Center for Reproductive Rights is playing in protecting our fundamental human rights around the world.”

The Creative Council was formally announced on Monday evening at the Center for Reproductive Rights’ annual Gala in New York City, which raised over $2 million to support the Center’s work. Photos of select Creative Council members from the Gala are available here. 

The Center for Reproductive Rights Creative Council includes chair Elizabeth Banks, as well as founding members Amy Brenneman, actor and producer; Lisa Edelstein, actor, producer, writer, and director; Sarah Jones, Tony-winning playwright/performer and producer; Aja Naomi King, actor; Cindi Leive, journalist and former editor-in-chief of Glamour; Carol Lim and Humberto Leon, co-founders of Opening Ceremony; Busy Philipps, actor and New York Times best-selling author; and Erika Savage, lawyer and executive at Morphe Cosmetics.

“The Center for Reproductive Rights is proud to partner with these powerful artists to protect and expand reproductive rights access across the globe through our work in the courts, in public policy, and before human rights bodies,” said Nancy Northup, President and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights. “We know the impact these artists can have in advocating for change and reaching new audiences to raise awareness about reproductive rights issues, including maternal health, abortion care, contraception, and assisted reproduction.”

Over the next several months, they will be focused on the Center’s U.S. Supreme Court case, June Medical Services v. Gee, which challenges a Louisiana law designed to shut down clinics and undermine our guaranteed right to access abortion care. This law is identical to a Texas law the U.S. Supreme Court declared unconstitutional that the Center litigated just three years ago in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt. If the Supreme Court allows this law to stand, all of Louisiana’s clinics would close except one, leaving one doctor to provide abortion services for nearly a million women across the state, putting abortion care completely out of reach.

About the Center for Reproductive Rights

The Center for Reproductive Rights uses the power of law to advance reproductive rights as fundamental human rights around the world. Headquartered in New York City, the non-profit, non-partisan organization has regional offices in Bogota, Geneva, Kathmandu, Nairobi, and Washington, DC. Since its founding in 1992, the Center has been involved in every major abortion rights case argued before the U.S. Supreme Court including winning the Court’s most recent case Whole Woman’s Health vs. Hellerstedt in 2016. This year, just three years after that victory, the Center is back at the Supreme Court fighting to preserve that win and the constitutional guarantee of the right to abortion in June Medical Services v. Gee. 

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