How ‘You Know Me’ Became #YouKnowMe

On Tuesday, after the Alabama Senate voted to pass a bill that would ban almost all abortions in the state, the actress Busy Philipps felt compelled to take action. “Women deserve compassion and understanding in their personal health choices,” Ms. Philipps, 39, said on Wednesday. “This is something a lot of people experience and go through in their lives, and it’s a health care decision like many health care decisions.”

Just a week earlier she had opened up about her own abortion, at age 15, on her late-night show, “Busy Tonight,” in a plea to protect women’s reproductive rights. Ms. Philipps, who is known for her roles on the TV shows “Dawson’s Creek” and “Freaks and Geeks,” wrote about the abortion in her memoir, “This Will Only Hurt a Little.”

“The statistic is one in four women will have an abortion before age 45,” she said last Tuesday on the show, referring to a study that was published in the American Journal of Public Health. “That statistic sometimes surprises people, and maybe you’re sitting there thinking, ‘I don’t know a woman who would have an abortion.’ Well, you know me.”

[Read More]