After Roe draft opinion, singer Phoebe Bridgers reveals she had an abortion
Just hours after she’d climbed the stairs of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art in a Jonathan Simkhai gown adorned with crystals, singer Phoebe Bridgers got personal about the Supreme Court’s draft opinion on overturning Roe v. Wade.
“I had an abortion in October of last year while I was on tour,” Bridgers tweeted and posted on her Instagram story Tuesday afternoon. “I went to Planned Parenthood, where they gave me the abortion pill. It was easy. Everyone deserves that kind of access.”
The message from Bridgers, 27, followed a Monday night report from Politico detailing a draft decision, penned by Justice Samuel Alito Jr., in which five Supreme Court conservatives agreed that the nearly 50-year-old case establishing the right to abortion should be overturned. On Tuesday, Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. confirmed the authenticity of the document and said the court is investigating the leak.
News of the court’s draft decision resurfaced concerns over access to the abortion pill, which the Food and Drug Administration in December made deliverable by mail through telehealth consultations. As some states clamp down on abortion rights, however, access to the pill is in jeopardy but remains in demand. In Texas, for instance, studies show thousands of woman obtained the pill online after the state enacted a law restricting abortion access.
Bridgers, who in her social media posts encouraged her followers to donate to abortion rights funds, said she took the abortion pill to end a pregnancy in the fall. The “Kyoto” singer has been outspoken on abortion rights over the past few years. Last year, Bridgers announced that the proceeds from her cover of “That Funny Feeling” on Bo Burnham’s Netflix special “Inside” would go to Texas Abortion Funds, which would distribute the money to 10 organizations.
In a statement about the release, Bridgers said, “This one’s for Greg Abbott,” referring to the Texas governor, a Republican, who signed a bill in May banning abortions as early as six weeks into pregnancy. In 2020, Bridgers partnered with indie rock band Bright Eyes on a song to benefit Planned Parenthood.
Bridgers is not the only celebrity to weigh in on abortion post-leak. Whoopi Goldberg, who has spoken openly about her abortion at 14, gave an impassioned monologue on “The View” on Tuesday. The actress and co-host said the point of the Roe decision was to give people “somewhere safe and somewhere clean” to have an abortion.
“It has nothing to do with your religion. This is not a religious issue, this is a human issue,” she said. She went on to say that getting an abortion “is a hard, awful decision that people make.”
Actor and activist Mark Ruffalo also weighed in, tweeting: “Forced birth and illegal abortions across state lines is backwards and cruel. The Supreme Court has BECOME the division.” Actress Amber Tamblyn tweeted the court’s decision “declared war on more than half of its citizens.” “We will fight, and we will not stop. EVER,” she added.