Lady Gaga dedicates D.C. Chromatica tour set to abortion rights: 'We will not stop until it's right'
Lady Gaga fired up her Chromatica army with a powerful statement on abortion rights on her latest tour stop in the United States capital.
The Oscar-winning performer dedicated a piano-driven performance of her 2011 single "The Edge of Glory" to pregnant people Monday night in Washington, D.C.
"I would like to dedicate this song to every woman in America, to every woman who now has to worry about her body if she gets pregnant. I pray that this country will speak up and we will stick together, and that we will not stop until it's right," Gaga said while preparing to sing the tune.
"I would like to dedicate this song to every woman in America. To every woman who now has to worry about her body if she gets pregnant. I pray that this country will speak up and we will not stop until its right!" - Lady Gaga talking about abortion rights at The #ChromaticaBallDC pic.twitter.com/YjwlC0rg7C
— Ryan | Lady Gaga 🏳️🌈 (@ryanleejohnson) August 9, 2022
She later broke from singing the single's lyrics to challenge the Supreme Court's recent decision to strike down protections for certain reproductive rights, asking the audience, "What about all the women who are raped? what about all the women that are dying giving childbirth?"
Before finishing the song, she addressed the crowd on the topic one more time.
"I didn't mean to be like a downer," she said. "But there's some s--- that's more important than show business."
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images Lady Gaga on the 'Chromatica Ball' tour.
Gaga previously opened up about her experience as a rape survivor in a 2021 episode of Oprah Winfrey and Prince Harry's AppleTV+ series The Me You Can't See. She recounted being raped and impregnated by a music producer early in her career, which resulted in years of psychological trauma — a theme she works through during the Chromatica Ball's narrative.
"And you can come back from things like that. But when it hits you really hard, it can… change you. I had a total psychotic break. And, for a couple years I was not the same girl," she said in the series. "The way that I feel when I feel pain was how I felt after I was raped. I've had so many MRIs and scans. Right? They can't, they don't find [anything], but your body remembers."
After her own experience, Gaga worked with Diane Warren on the Oscar-nominated song "Til It Happens to You" for the 2015 documentary The Hunting Ground, which explores campus rape culture.
Watch Gaga address abortion rights on stage in the video above.
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