Donations, Chants and Calls For Change: Celebrities React To The End of Roe
Musicians, athletes and other celebrities are using their platforms to respond to the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Planned Parenthood on Friday.
The conservative-heavy court’s decision has already triggered abortion bans in a number of states and has sparked protests across the country.
Singer Lizzo, in the wake of the decision, announced she is pledging $500,000 toward Planned Parenthood and abortion rights organization from her upcoming tour, which starts in September.
I’m pledging $500k from my upcoming tour to Planned Parenthood and Abortion Rights. Live Nation agreed to match— to make it 1 MILLION dollars
— FOLLOW @YITTY (@lizzo) June 24, 2022
“Black women [and] women of color have historically had disproportionately less access to family planning resources — this is a great loss but not a new one,” Lizzo said on her Instagram account.
Concert promoter Live Nation pledged the same $500,000 toward abortion rights organizations and also agreed to cover travel costs for employees seeking abortions out of their state, the company announced on Instagram.
British singer Harry Styles, in a social media post, wrote about feeling “absolutely devastated” for Americans and urged his fans to check in with loved ones.
Styles, in an interview on “The Howard Stern Show” last month, said he didn’t believe anyone should make decisions about “anyone else’s body” after a draft opinion on the ruling leaked from the Supreme Court in May, Seventeen reported.
I’m absolutely devastated for the people of America today.
Check on your friends.
Look after each other.
We’re all in this together, and the fight is just beginning.
A truly dark day for America.— Harry Styles. (@Harry_Styles) June 24, 2022
Stars also made their voices heard off social media in the wake of the decision.
Singer Phoebe Bridgers, during a set at England’s Glastonbury Festival on Friday, asked her fans to chant “‘Fuck the Supreme Court’ on three.”
“All these irrelevant old motherfuckers trying to tell us what to do with our fucking bodies,” Bridgers said of the Supreme Court justices.
Bridgers has been an outspoken advocate for abortion rights, releasing a cover of a Bo Burnham song in 2021 to aid a number of Texas abortion funds, Entertainment Weekly reported.
She’s previously revealed she had an abortion and sought assistance from Planned Parenthood.
.@Phoebe_Bridgers leads a “Fuck the Supreme Court” chant at Glastonbury following the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade: pic.twitter.com/QzH652xEAw
— Consequence (@consequence) June 24, 2022
Aside from musicians, star athletes also weighed in on the decision.
LeBron James shared a tweet suggesting universal health care and attempts to decrease the Black maternal mortality rates in the South would be a focal point for anti-abortion advocates if they cared about “babies’” lives.
The decision Friday is “ABSOLUTELY ABOUT POWER & CONTROL!!” James tweeted.
It’s ABSOLUTELY ABOUT POWER & CONTROL!! https://t.co/Bx9VJH1PTj
— LeBron James (@KingJames) June 24, 2022
You can read a number of other celebrities’ reactions to the Supreme Court’s decision overturning abortion rights below.
I’m absolutely terrified that this is where we are - that after so many decades of people fighting for women’s rights to their own bodies, today’s decision has stripped us of that. https://t.co/mwK561oxxl
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) June 24, 2022
This is about controlling bodies and keeping people in systemic poverty for generations. It’s heartbreaking that this personal medical decision has been made by people enforcing their evangelical beliefs on all of us.
— Jonathan Van Ness (@jvn) June 24, 2022
It is truly unfathomable and disheartening to have to try to explain to my 11 year old daughter why we live in a world where women’s rights are disintegrating in front of our eyes.
— Mariah Carey (@MariahCarey) June 24, 2022
Not too long ago, this would have been dystopian sci-fi. But the legacy of the 2016 election and the indelible mark of the GOP is printed here in black and white. How much farther this will go once again depends on American voters. Blame extremism or apathy, but this is America: pic.twitter.com/WefAworLlW
— Seth MacFarlane (@SethMacFarlane) June 24, 2022
Supreme Court my ass
— Danny DeVito (@DannyDeVito) June 24, 2022
And so it goes….Gutted. Now more than ever we have to use our voice and power! WE the people……🙏🏿🙏🏿https://t.co/8gFi0AbNSQ
— Viola Davis (@violadavis) June 24, 2022
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.