Actress and activist Alyssa Milano has taken to social media to launch a #SexStrike in response to a new abortion law in the state of Georgia. Specifically, the protest calls on women to stop having sex with men until all women have bodily autonomy. 

The #MeToo activist tweeted that women's reproductive rights are being erased in America and that "until women have legal control over our own bodies we just cannot risk pregnancy." 

Earlier this week, Georgia’s Republican governor Brian Kemp signed legislation to ban abortion once cardiac activity can be detected thus making Georgia the fourth US state to prohibit abortion in such circumstances, following Ohio, Mississippi, Kentucky, Iowa, and North Dakota.

It's important to note that cardiac activity can happen as early as six weeks, before most women would know they are pregnant, with morning sickness generally beginning at the nine-week mark.

The so-called "heartbeat" bill is scheduled to come into effect on the 1st of January, 2020.

"We need to understand how dire the situation is across the country," Milano told the Associated Press on Saturday. "It's reminding people that we have control over our own bodies and how we use them."

While it may seem a little strange, the Sorry Not Sorry podcaster cited the Iroquois women who refused to have sex in the 1600s as a way to stop unregulated warfare as an example of how 'sex strikes' can work.

In a statement to the Washington Post, the 46-year-old said that she was glad her tweet shone a "light on the Republican war against women and out bodily autonomy". Furthermore, she warned that the landmark case of Roe v Wade may be overturned in the future if such bills continue.

It was with this case that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the American constitution provided a fundamental "right to privacy" that protects a pregnant woman's liberty to choose whether or not to have an abortion.

"Mark my words, one of the bills will end up going to the Supreme Court to overturn Roe. And if Roe is overturned this will directly impact the women most at risk, the women from low-income communities of colour," she said.

Milano's suggested strike divided opinion on social media, with some women suggesting that the idea of withholding sex perpetuates the outdated view that sex is to be 'given up' by women and 'taken' by men. However, it seems that the activist's true mission was to get people talking and in that, she has succeeded. 

You can read some of the #SexStrike reaction tweets below: