The land of the unfree

Amnesty International teamed up with Anorak / NoA to create a global campaign to underpin the need to protect the right to abortion in the U.S. By tweaking one of the nation’s most beloved phrases, the campaign aims to shine a critical light on the current state of women’s reproductive rights in the U.S.

The United States is no longer "the land of the free", says Amnesty International in a new global campaign that launched on June 24th. The campaign features “Star Spangled Banner” with altered lyrics highlighting how women and girls are denied their right to decide their own future due to strict abortion laws.

In the campaign, Amnesty challenges one of the fundamental truths that Americans pride themselves about their country: That they are «the land of the free».

The video tells the stories of four women and girls who are facing the consequences of strict abortion laws. In the movie, Norwegian award-winning artist, Emilie Nicolas, stops singing where it hurts the most, replacing the word free with a silence that speaks louder than words.

– The idea behind the film came from the realization that there is a great contradiction in that the United States, a nation that speaks louder about freedom than any other nation in the world, is now removing women's freedom to decide over their own lives. We hope the campaign can help Amnesty put pressure on those in power and all Americans in general and give them an opportunity to reflect on whether they can still call themselves "the Land of the Free," says Anorak’s Peter Power who was part of the creative team.

The campaign will run on digital and social in more than ten countries, across multiple continents, and has been translated into six languages, including Chinese.

The video also includes a petition to protect the right to safe abortion in the US, targeting individual state governments working to expand or restrict access to abortion.

By contacting the governors of the states directly, Amnesty aims to influence those who hold the key to securing the right to safe and legal abortion.

– The unthinkable has happened, and there is an urgent need to create international pressure - especially on the 22 states that already have passed laws that completely or partially prohibit abortion. I hope people get involved and sign our campaign on amnesty.no, says Fundraising- and Marketing Manager at Amnesty Camilla Kolverud.

When the news broke, Amnesty published the video on TikTok where it is currently receiving massive engagement with 12 000 comments and over 1000 reaction videos from people from all over the world. While some are writing captions like “We are not free”, and “it feels like a movie, it can’t be real”, others are offering American women housing if they ever need to leave the country to undergo a safe abortion.