After inviting abortion funds to distribute contraceptive supplies at tour venues, Olivia Rodrigo’s management has bowed to political pressure to put the handouts to an end, Jezebel reports. Prairie Abortion Fund, which had amassed supplies for tonight’s show in St. Paul, Minnesota, confirms that the National Network of Abortion Funds (NNAF) relayed the instructions from Rodrigo’s team. It will instead distribute buttons, stickers, beanies, and resource pages.
Pictures of condoms and emergency contraception handed out at shows have gone viral this week, prompting international media coverage. While most has been positive, Jezebel notes pushback from right-wing figures including Bill Eigel, a state senator in Missouri, where abortion is banned. Eigel falsely claimed that Plan B, which the Missouri Abortion Fund and Right by You distributed at Rodrigo’s St. Louis show, is an abortifacient, rather than a way to prevent pregnancy in the first place.
Following the coverage of the St. Louis show, the NNAF wrote to local funds in cities where Rodrigo is headed, to convey that the singer’s management had prohibited them from distributing contraceptive supplies and lubricant. The issue, management had told them, was that young girls might obtain them, according to Jezebel.
In a statement to Pitchfork, Destini Spaeth, the chair of Prairie Abortion Fund, expressed gratitude to Rodrigo for the opportunity to attract attention and funding. “Our country lacks comprehensive sex education and accessible healthcare so offering these items when we table at events is a way abortion funds work to bridge the gaps in our communities,” Spaeth wrote. “A young person taking a Plan B and a few condoms to store in their dresser drawer is a universally good thing.”
Spaeth added, “Abortion funds are more than a pledge to a clinic to pay for your abortion fee—we are navigators, collaborators, harm reduction advocates, disrupters, big thinkers, and a wealth of sexual and reproductive health resources. Our work has been exponentially harder since the Dobbs decision of 2022—don’t make it any harder for us. Let us do what we know how to do best; community care.”
Pitchfork has emailed Rodrigo’s publicist, as well as her team at Lighthouse Management and Media. Neither they nor the NNAF immediately responded to requests for comment.
Rodrigo’s tour of North America and Europe, billed as the Guts World Tour, is set to run through August.
Source : Pitchfork
