By Lauren Rearick

After winning the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Limited Television Series or Movie, Michelle Williams used her time to remind viewers — and especially female viewers — of the importance of voting.

During Sunday evening’s ceremony (January 5), she accepted the award for her role in Fosse/Verdon, and according to Williams, the moment would never have happened “without employing a woman’s right to choose.”

"When you put this in someone's hands, you're acknowledging the choices that they make as an actor,” she said of her Golden Globe statuette. “Moment by moment, scene by scene, day by day. But you're also acknowledging the choices they make as a person. The education they pursue, the training they sought, the hours they put in."

"I'm grateful for the acknowledgement of the choices I've made and also grateful to have lived at a moment in our society where choice exists, because as women and as girls things can happen to our bodies that are not our choice,” she continued. “I've tried my very best to live a life of my own making and not just a series of events that happened to me, but one that I could stand back and look at and recognize my handwriting all over it- sometimes messy and scrawling, sometimes careful and precise, but one that I have carved with my own hand."

Williams added that the life she was able to create would never have been possible without having the right to choose, even when it comes to areas of religion. “Thank God, or whoever you pray to, that we live in a country founded on the principle that I am free to live by my faith and you are free to live by yours," she said. "So women, 18 to 118, when it is time to vote, please do so in your own self interest. It's what men have been doing for years, which is why the world looks so much like them. Don't forget we are the largest voting body in this country. Let's make it look more like us."

The remarks come amidst continued attacks on abortion rights in the United States. Although a number of 2020 Democratic presidential candidates have shared their support of reproductive rights, anti-abortion lawmakers have continually attempted to enact legislation that would restrict abortion access, often to minority and impoverished people. Organizations including the ACLU and Planned Parenthood have done their part to restrict passage of these laws, but the fight isn't over — the Supreme Court is set to hear a case that would determine if the state of Louisiana is allowed to instill yet another targeted restriction against abortion providers.