X-Men: Dark Phoenix Actress Jessica Chastain Celebrates Independence Day By Flicking It Off

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 30: (L-R) Maggie Gyllenhaal and Jessica Chastain attend "The Lost Daughter" NYC Tastemaker Screening at Crosby Hotel on September 30, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images for Netflix)

X-Men: Dark Phoenix actress Jessica Chastain took to Twitter to celebrate Independence Day by sharing a photo of herself flicking off the camera with both her hands.

Chastain wrote on Twitter, “Happy ‘Independence’ Day from me and my reproductive rights.”

Chastain previously shared a clip from a speech she gave back in 2017 at Variety’s Power of Women conference sponsored by Planned Parenthood where she claimed, “we need Planned Parenthood.”

In the video shared to her Twitter account on June 25th, she says, “We need Planned Parenthood. As a daughter of a single mother in a low income household, I am indebted to the organization.”

She continued, “As I grew up, they made it financially possible and accessible for me to educate myself and to make decisions regarding my health and future. Planned Parenthood is an incredible organization that provides women with the opportunity — the equal opportunity of that of her male counterparts of having jurisdiction over her life, her body, and her health. And the knowledge to make necessary personal choices.”

“It is crucial that to fight for this, and I believe that we can and we will prevail. Why? Because women are strong. We are powerful, formidable. We are a force to be reckoned with. Women are half of the population and we are not going anywhere.”

She followed that up writing, “It’s time for men to really show up. You’re not an ally if you’re waiting for the women in your life to tell you to fight for her rights.”

In an interview published in Porter Magazine on June 27th, Chastain also commented on the overturning of Roe v Wade, telling the outlet, “I think we need to remind each other what history used to look like for women, because it does feel like that has been forgotten.”

She added, “In some sense, we’ve taken for granted this idea, [of] being able to live a life free of violence and someone else making decisions about your welfare, your safety… This idea of reminding us what it is like when one group loses their rights – it’s a trickle-down effect. It affects everyone, and so I think the stories I start looking at will have to deal with that.”

The Supreme Court did indeed overturn Roe v Wade with a majority opinion written by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. In his opinion, Alito stated, “The constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives.”

He would later explain, “Guided by the history and tradition that map the essential components of the Nation’s concept of ordered liberty, the Court finds the Fourteenth Amendment clearly does not protect the right to an abortion.”

As for Chastain’s praise of Planned Parenthood, the organization was founded by Margaret Sanger and they now claim to condemn her belief in eugenics as an “inherently racist and ableist ideology that labeled certain people unfit to have children.”

“Eugenics is the theory that society can be improved through planned breeding for ‘desirable traits’ like intelligence and industriousness,” the organization states. 

It further notes that “Sanger tried to argue for a eugenics that was not applied based on race or religion. But in a society built on the belief of white supremacy, physical and mental fitness are always judged based on race.”

Planned Parenthood goes on to detail that “Sanger was so intent on her mission to advocate for birth control  that she chose to align herself with ideas and organizations that were ableist and white supremacist. In 1926, she spoke to the women’s auxiliary of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) at a rally in New Jersey to promote birth control methods. Sanger endorsed the 1927 Buck v. Bell decision, in which the Supreme Court ruled that states could forcibly sterilize people deemed “unfit” without their consent and sometimes without their knowledge.”

What do you make of Chastain’s Independence Day message?

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