Lorde spoke out about abortion rights during her show in LA last night (May 5).
It comes after the US Supreme Court’s private vote to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which made abortion legal on a federal level in the US, was revealed.
Earlier this week (May 2) Politico published a leaked draft opinion penned by Justice Samuel Alito which argued that Roe v. Wade was “egregiously wrong from the start”, adding that “it is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives”.
Draft opinions can be subject to multiple drafts and vote-trading, sometimes until just days before they are shared, so the court’s decision is not final. If the court goes through with overturning the landmark case, however, abortion would no longer be protected as a federal right in the US, and each state would be able to decide individually whether to restrict or ban abortion.
During her performance in LA last night, Lorde delivered a lengthy speech about the possible loss of abortion rights in the US.
“Like so many of you, I’ve been sickened and heartbroken this week by the news that there are some people who think that our bodies are not our own,” she said before performing her ‘Melodrama’ track ‘Hard Feelings’.
“And I still don’t have the words to talk about this with you. It’s so big and so heavy. I think it’s OK to freeze for a little bit, you know, and then you re-engage. But, what I’m trying to say is I have some big, heavy shit that I am working through that I am feeling.”
This week, Phoebe Bridgers, Garbage, Questlove and more reacted to the US Supreme Court’s private vote.
Questlove posted twice on Instagram in reaction to the vote. First, he likened the Supreme Court vote to the country’s “Handmaids Tale era” before sharing a graphic asking his followers to “channel your rage into action”.
In the caption, he said, “Men we of all people need to rally behind this” before listing multiple rallies that would take place in New York City, D.C., and across the country today (May 3) in protest of the potential overturn of Roe v. Wade.
Garbage also shared a post on Instagram, with a graphic that read “You can’t ban abortion you can only ban safe abortions.” They captioned the post, “my heart breaks.”
Bridgers, meanwhile, wrote a candid post to fans via her Instagram stories and Twitter, sharing her own experience before asking them to donate.
“I had an abortion in October of last year while I was on tour,” she wrote. “I went to planned parenthood where they gave me the abortion pill.”
The singer added: “It was easy. Everyone deserves that kind of access” before sharing a link to a list of abortion funds to donate.