Yungblud, Maggie Rogers, St. Vincent among artists speaking out against new Texas abortion law

Yungblud, Maggie Rogers, St. Vincent and Lucy Dacus are among the artists who have spoken out against Texas’ strict new abortion law which came into effect this week.

The new legislation, Senate Bill 8, bans most abortions in Texas and makes the state the most restrictive in the United States in terms of access to abortion services, according to the New York Times.

It prohibits aborting a foetus once cardiac activity can be detected, which is generally around six weeks – a very early point in a pregnancy, when women may not even know they are pregnant. It makes no exceptions for victims of rape or incest, and authorises citizens to sue abortion providers or anyone involved in facilitating an abortion. The US Supreme Court refused to block the bill before its enactment on Wednesday (September 1).

Advertisement

A slew of artists and musicians have since criticised the legislation and voiced their support for the pro-choice movement.

“The right to your body is yours and yours alone,” Yungblud shared in a video on Twitter. “It makes me sick and it makes me really disgusted that people sit there and they take away that choice and they take away that right.”

Lucy Dacus has also announced that she’ll be donating all proceeds from her forthcoming Texas shows to abortion funds.

“all the money I make at our upcoming shows in Texas will be going towards abortion funds jsyk, if you’re not cool with that don’t come,” she wrote.

Advertisement






Other musicians including St. Vincent, Pink, Maggie Rogers, Billy Bragg and more have also voiced their opposition to the new law, with Bragg invoking Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale. 

“Gilead here we come! #BlessedBeTheFruit,” he tweeted.

President Joe Biden also weighed in on the new Texas law, saying he would be “launching a whole-of-government effort to respond to this decision”.