Jennifer Lawrence has opened up about her experiences with Planned Parenthood in a new interview with Glamour.

Responding to recent attacks on the organisation – which promotes free sexual healthcare and contraception – the Hunger Games actress expressed her support, revealing how important it was to her while growing up. Controversially, the US government has since made a motion to defund the project.

“My mom was really religious with me when I was young,” she told the magazine. “She's not so much anymore. And I wouldn't have been able to get birth control if it weren't for Planned P. I wouldn't have been able to get condoms and birth control and all these things I needed as a normal teenager who was growing up in a Jesus house.”

She also addressed last November’s tragic Colorado Springs shooting – calling the incident a direct “attack” on women. “It isn't an attack on abortions; it's an attack on women. Because Planned Parenthood is so much more (than abortion).”

Lawrence, who has been a vocal supporter of gender equality since publishing an essay on the subject last year, then went on to discuss the sexist hypocrisy of Hollywood studio heads – proving the battle for industry parity is still far from won.

“The women’s pay gap is a real thing that a lot of people don’t know about. It hasn’t been in our consciousness,” she explained. “(With Hunger Games) we broke the (movie with a solo female lead) record, and I didn’t even realise. As women we don't know we're at a deficit because we have vaginas. It wasn't until they had a headline like, 'Even though she's a woman!' And I was like, 'Oh. I didn't know to be looking out for that.' (Baby voice) 'How did this wittle vagina manage that? I carried a whooole movie.’ How did I do it, getting a period once a month?”

Read the whole interview on Glamour here.