Actress Alyssa Milano has caused a storm with a tweet calling for women to join her in a sex strike to protest against strict abortion bans in the US.

The former star of TV show ‘Charmed’ and current cast member of ‘Insatiable’, which is filmed in Georgia, urged women in her tweet to stop having sex “until we get bodily autonomy back”.

Her tweet came days after Georgia became the fourth state in the US this year to ban abortions once a foetal heartbeat is detected, which can be as early as six weeks, before many women know they are pregnant.

“We need to understand how dire the situation is across the country,” Milano said. “It’s reminding people that we have control over our own bodies and how we use them.”

She noted that women have historically withheld sex to protest or advocate for political reform. She cited how Iroquois women refused to have sex in the 1600s as a way to stop unregulated warfare. Most recently, she noted that Liberian women used a sex strike in 2003 to demand an end to a long-running civil war.

Fellow actress Bette Midler joined her in also calling for a sex strike with her own tweet. But both liberals and conservatives also lampooned her idea. Some said she was perpetrating the idea women have sex only as a favour to men.

Milano said people had to determine for themselves how long the sex strike should last. She is married to actors’ agent Dave Bugliari and they have two children.

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