Outraged and heartbroken. Taylor Swift was among the many celebrities who shared their reaction to the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade after nearly 50 years.
“I’m absolutely terrified that this is where we are — that after so many decades of people fighting for women’s rights to their own bodies, today’s decision has stripped us of that,” the “All Too Well” singer, 32, wrote via Twitter on Friday, June 24, shortly after the decision was announced.
Just one month after an opinion authored by Associate Justice Samuel Alito against the constitutional right to abortion was leaked to the public, the Supreme Court formally overturned the landmark case. The decision will affect the reproductive rights of women across the country, as the legality of abortion will now be decided on a state-by-state basis. Alito wrote the majority opinion, which was decided in a 5-3-1 vote. Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan heavily criticized the majority opinion in their joint dissent: “With sorrow – for this Court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection – we dissent.”
Like many other celebrities, Phoebe Bridgers has been an outspoken advocate for reproductive rights. After the leaked opinion made headlines last month, the “Motion Sickness” singer, 27, shared her own experience of having an abortion via Twitter. “I had an abortion in October of last year while I was on tour,” she wrote at the time. “I went to Planned Parenthood where they gave me the abortion pill. It was easy. Everyone deserves that kind of access.”
The “Kyoto” musician explained why she decided to share her story with social media in an interview with The Guardian that was published on Friday. “I’ve always found comfort in talking to people in passing – when someone’s mom says: ‘I had an abortion when I was a teen.’ It normalized it for me,” Bridgers told the outlet. “I was, ‘All right, it’s time to throw my hat into that pool … That’s not a phrase, I just made that up. But I didn’t think about it, really, at all.”
Acknowledging that “as a white, upper-middle-class woman from California, even if it were to be overturned, I will always have access” to an abortion, Bridgers added that she asked a friend who is a medical student for help when she needed to undergo the procedure. “The people with access will always have access. What pisses me off is that we’re not talking about me.” she said. “It’s so easy: I played in Texas the same week, and then I went home and was like: oh my God. Made the appointment. It was 12 hours of my life.”
Padma Laksmi, who has also been a vocal proponent of women’s rights, echoed those comments in a series of Twitter posts. “People will still get abortions,” she wrote on Friday. “These procedures won’t stop just because Roe v. Wade is overturned. This will only prevent safe, legal abortions from taking place.”
The Top Chef host, 51, continued: “The right to decide when to start a family or not is a choice every individual should be able to make on their terms when the time is right for them. This freedom and dignity is something we should all fight to preserve.”
Keep scrolling to see more celebrity reactions to the Supreme Court’s decision: