Eva Longoria calls out ‘hypocritical’ Republicans over abortion ban

New legislation bans most abortions in Texas

Eva Longoria has called out “hypocritical” Republicans on the subject of reproductive rights.

The actor, a native Texan and a producer of the 2018 documentary Reversing Roe about abortion legislation in the US, was asked about the topic during a recent interview with The New York Times.

A new law recently took effect in Texas, banning most abortions. It allows private citizens to file civil lawsuits against people who help a person obtain an abortion after six weeks, whether it be a doctor who performs the procedure or someone who drives that person to a clinic.

The law allows the people who sue to receive bounties of at least $10,000 and makes no exceptions in cases of rape or incest. Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott defended the law, saying that the state would “eliminate all rapists”.

While speaking to The New York Times, Longoria argued that it was “hypocritical” to rely on the concept of bodily autonomy to refuse to take a Covid vaccine, while at the same time denying the same autonomy to people seeking abortions.

“I think it’s hypocritical for Republicans to say, ‘You can’t mandate a vaccine for me. It’s my body, my choice.’ Yet when it comes to women’s reproductive rights, we cannot have a choice,” she told the newspaper.

The actor urged people to “pay attention to civic engagement”, adding: “People like to blame Biden or Trump or Obama, but then you’re like, ‘No, no, this was your state legislature.’ You have to participate in what is happening in your community, your school board, your state legislature.”

Reuters contributed to this story