By Emily Chudy | Pink News via Pride Nation
Musician Halsey has called for urgent action to defend abortion rights after a leaked Supreme Court opinion indicated that Roe v Wade may be overturned.
The 27-year-old, who has previously spoken about her experiences with miscarriage and the music industry’s treatment of pregnant people, encouraged her followers to take action and donate to abortion funds and charities after it emerged that abortion rights may be under attack in the United States.
Halsey said on Twitter: “This is one of the most significant events we will witness in our lifetimes. This decision will spiral into lethal situations for our entire country.
“Most seriously impacting people of colour, rural areas and socioeconomically impacted communities. The time to take action is now.
“I cannot stress enough the implications of this moment in history. This is a cruel attack on our fundamental right to choose if and when to have a child. I felt this way before I became a mother and I feel this way even more now after having my son.”
Halsey, who gave birth to son Ender in July 2021, added that pregnancy is a “dangerous and life-altering experience” that people should always be “consenting and desiring” for.
“Everyone deserves the right to choose and the right to make that choice safely,” they said.
The news that the US Supreme Court may overturn Roe v Wade, which legalised abortion across the country, leaked on Monday (2 May) to widespread criticism.
Politico published a leaked draft opinion, written by conservative justice Samuel Alito, who called the 1973 ruling “egregiously wrong from the start”.
Alito wrote: “We hold that Roe… must be overruled. The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision.”The document is only a draft, and the Supreme Court’s holding will not be set in stone until the final opinion is published, which is likely to happen within the next two months.
House speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer released a joint statement criticising the opinion, stating: “If the report is accurate, the Supreme Court is poised to inflict the greatest restriction of rights in the past 50 years – not just on women but on all Americans.
“The Republican-appointed justices’ reported votes to overturn Roe v Wade would go down as an abomination, one of the worst and most damaging decisions in modern history.”
The leaked document has also been criticised by celebrities including Phoebe Bridgers, who spoke out about her own abortion, stating that “everybody deserves the kind of access” that she had to it.
