Planned Parenthood has spoken out in support of Britney Spears after the singer told a conservatorship hearing that she has been blocked from having her implanted IUD birth control device removed.
Speaking during a revelatory LA Superior Court hearing yesterday (June 23), Spears explained that she has been prevented from having the device removed in order to have more children.
“I want to be able to get married and have a baby,” Spears told Judge Brenda Penny during a lengthy public statement that opposed the conservatorship she’s been under for the past 13 years.
“I was told right now in the conservatorship, I’m not able to get married or have a baby. I have an IUD inside of myself right now so I don’t get pregnant. I wanted to take the IUD out so I could start trying to have another baby. But this so-called team won’t let me go to the doctor to take it out because they don’t want me to have any more children.”
Spears is the mother of two boys, 15-year-old Sean Preston and 14-year-old Jayden James, with her ex-husband Kevin Federline. She is currently dating actor Sam Asghari.
Standing in solidarity with the singer, Planned Parenthood Federation of America president and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson described Spears’ testimony as “distressing”.
“We stand in solidarity with Britney and all women who face reproductive coercion. Your reproductive health is your own — and no one should make decisions about it for you. Every person should have the ability to make their own decisions about their bodies and exercise bodily autonomy,” she said.
The hearing, which saw Spears’ father Jamie face significant criticism, marks a significant development in her controversial conservatorship, which prompted the fan-created #FreeBritney movement and gained renewed attention upon the release of the February documentary Framing Britney Spears.
In September last year it was reported that Spears supported the #FreeBritney movement, though she more recently condemned the documentaries about her life on social media.
Earlier this year, Jamie’s lawyer said in media interviews that Britney’s fans “have it wrong” about the conservatorship, and that “Jamie believes every single decision he has made has been in her best interest”.
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- The Samaritans – Confidential support 24 hours a day
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