Michelle Williams just won the second Golden Globe of her career for her role on Fosse/Verdon — and she used her acceptance speech to plug the importance of reproductive freedom.
Michelle Williams used her Golden Globes speech to celebrate a woman’s right to choose
“I’m grateful to have lived in a moment in our society where choice exists.”
Constance Grady is a senior correspondent on the Culture team for Vox, where since 2016 she has covered books, publishing, gender, celebrity analysis, and theater.
“When you put this in someone’s hands, you’re acknowledging the choices made by the actor but also the choices they made as a person,” Williams began as she accepted her award at the Golden Globes ceremony in Los Angeles Sunday night. “I’m grateful for the acknowledgment of the choices I’ve made, and I’m also grateful to have lived in a moment in our society where choice exists.”
As Anna North has reported for Vox, it’s likely that the Supreme Court will dismantle Roe v. Wade in 2020. Already, multiple states have passed laws that amount to a total ban on abortions. And in March, the Court will hear arguments for June Medical Services v. Gee, a case centered on whether or not Louisiana can restrict abortions to treatment centers at which at least one doctor has admitting privileges at an area hospital.
Admitting privilege laws are a common tactic used by red states to shut down as many abortion providers as possible. While ostensibly they do so in the name of women’s safety, advocates for abortion rights tend to counter that argument by noting that it’s vanishingly rare for anyone to need to go to the hospital after an abortion. Observers believe that with Brett Kavanaugh on the bench, the Court will uphold Louisiana’s law, essentially making it possible under federal law for states to outlaw abortion and overturn Roe.
Williams, who has been an active participant in Hollywood’s Time’s Up movement, went on to declare that she could not have lived the life she’s had without the guarantee of a women’s right to choose, and of knowing she would be able “to choose when to have my children, and with whom.”
“I know my choices might look different than yours,” Williams said. “But thank god or whomever you pray to that we live in a country founded on the principle that I am free to live by my faith and you are free to live by yours. So, women, 18 to 118, when it is time to vote, please do so in your own self-interest. It’s what men have been doing for years.”
Behind Williams, Tiffany Haddish, who presented the award, applauded vigorously. “I’m about that women’s right to choose,” Haddish informed the audience.
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