Elizabeth Banks talks sexual health, reproductive care in revealing chat

Alyssa Goldberg, USA TODAYThu, April 23, 2026 at 11:01 AM UTC

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NEW YORK, NY – I didn’t expect to start my morning playing a game of “Never Have I Ever” with Elizabeth Banks. But there I was at a hotel restaurant in SoHo with a group of 15 women, all sharing intimate details of our sexual health.

The "Hunger Games" and "Pitch Perfect" actress, 52, is a longtime women’s health advocate, and she's using her platform to champion reproductive freedom and health care access. She’s teamed up with Cadence OTC, a brand providing over-the-counter access to emergency contraception and urinary-tract infection (UTI) relief. She is an investor in the company.

“I’ve traveled the world, and I felt like the system for birth control here just didn’t match up with women’s lived reality,” she tells me over coffee in the restaurant’s courtyard.

Banks just spent six months in Canada filming her new comedy-drama Peacock series, “The Miniature Wife,” which also taps into themes of women’s autonomy and “the minimization of wants and needs,” she explains.

When Banks tried to renew her birth control in Canada – which she uses to manage menopause symptoms – her doctor back home said she could only get it one month at a time, and needed to call her doctor every three months for prescription refills.

“It was just like, why are women so disempowered when it comes to our health and bodies, when men don’t have to deal with this stuff?” she says.

Elizabeth Banks talks with USA TODAY about "The Miniature Wife," menopause and her work as a women's health advocate in April 2026 over coffee in SoHo, New York.

The Supreme Court case Dobbs v. Jackson overturned Roe v. Wade and the constitutional right to abortion in 2022. At the same time, studies have shown that states with the strictest abortion laws already have the weakest maternal health care support.

For example, 52.5% of the Arkansas and 49.2% of the Oklahoma populations lived in maternity care deserts ‒ areas where there are no obstetric providers or birth centers ‒ as of 2022. Both states have total abortion bans with limited exceptions. And as data has indicated some physicians are deterred from practicing medicine in states with abortion bans, researchers warn of implications for workforce sustainability and the availability of timely and accessible health care.

Banks says part of Cadence’s goal is to serve health care deserts by placing its contraceptive and UTI relief products in convenience stores, such as 7-Elevens, rather than pharmacies where these products already exist.

In the United States, there are 150 counties where there is no pharmacy, and nearly 4.8 million people live in a county where there's approximately one pharmacy for every 10,000 residents.

The morning-after pill works by delaying ovulation after unprotected sex to prevent fertilization. Cadence is currently working with the FDA toward an over-the-counter birth control pill, so that people can access it without a prescription or insurance. People should consult with a physician about which contraceptive care is right for them.

Is it safe to stockpile Plan B? Here's what experts have to say.

‘The Miniature Wife’ represents ‘being made to feel small’

Banks stars as Lindy Littlejohn, a novelist with writer’s block married to Les (Matthew Macfadyen), a scientist on the verge of a breakthrough, in the new TV series “The Miniature Wife.” Already struggling with tension in their marriage, Les accidentally shrinks Lindy down to 6-inches tall.

Banks says this isn’t just a literal shrinkage, it’s a minimization of her character’s wants and needs.

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“It’s this sense that women are often being made to feel small, like what we want and care about is less than,” she says.

It’s a pattern she sees “across the board of culture.” Movies are designated as “girl’s movies,” women’s sports are singled out, whereas men’s sports are just referred to as “sports.”

“It’s important to keep trying to change the language, access and conversation, because that all leads to just greater empowerment for women,” she adds.

‘I’m in menopause, for sure’

“I’m 52, so it would be really weird if I were still making babies,” Banks joked. But what comes along with menopause, she says, is an "incredible change in my physiology."

She feels “grateful” to be going through those changes during a time where conversations on women’s health have made it to the forefront, compared to the stigma experienced “just one generation” ago.

“We did not speak about these things,” she says. “Mothers passed on this information very quietly. We all read, ‘Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret,’ because we had to figure out how to have a period when we were 12 years old.”

The conversation is finally happening, she says, “because there are women with economic and therefore physical safety, able to speak out and say, ‘I need something.’ ”

Where's 'Effie' from the 'Hunger Games'? Elizabeth Banks weighs in.

Elizabeth Banks taught her ex-boyfriend about emergency contraception

While “Never Have I Ever” is usually played by mischievous tweens or drunken partiers, Banks used it to break through the taboo of sex, sex education and reproductive health. There were mimosas at brunch, but it wasn't yet 10 a.m. Soberly, us women at the table still divulged our personal experiences. For Banks, one of these tricky situations included receiving a call from her high school boyfriend in college, asking if she could talk to his new girlfriend about emergency contraception.

Despite uproar from the group, Banks shared that she helped the couple navigate the morning-after pill.

Elizabeth Banks leads a round of "Never Have I Ever" at brunch in Manhattan. One thing she's done? Explained how the morning-after pill works to her ex-boyfriend.

She spoke more about struggling to get her birth control pills for hormone replacement therapy while traveling out of the country.

“I'm still having issues when it comes to health care, even though I'm rich and famous and have access,” she quipped.

It helps create a sense of community, she says, when women learn these experiences and mishaps are more common than we think. But along with that camaraderie, Banks wants to see movement toward dismantling barriers to women’s health care.

“I just want to remind young women to take nothing for granted,” Banks says. “I hate using this word, but (what) the patriarchy steals from us is our time and energy, because it requires us to devote time and energy to our basic needs in a way that men do not have to.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Elizabeth Banks on’ The Miniature Wife,' sexual health and more

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