Celebrities slam US Supreme Court's abortion ruling

LOS ANGELES • From teen pop star Olivia Rodrigo (right) to veteran actress Bette Midler, many celebrities came out in force over the weekend to criticise the United States Supreme Court's decision to overturn a landmark ruling that had protected abortion rights in the country.

The 1973 Roe versus Wade ruling had recognised a woman's constitutional right to an abortion, and legalised it at a federal level. But last Friday, the Supreme Court justices voted 5-4 to reverse the law, paving the way for conservative US states to ban the medical procedure.

In reaction to the news, actress Jessica Biel wrote on Twitter that she was enraged, while Midler said the court was "absolutely tone deaf to the will and actual needs of the American people".

In an interview with Variety magazine shortly after the ruling, actress Rita Moreno - who won an Oscar for her role in West Side Story (1961) - opened up about experiencing a botched abortion in the era before the Roe versus Wade ruling.

"The doctor didn't do anything really, except make me bleed. He didn't do it right. I didn't know it then, but I could have died," she said of the procedure, which had been paid for and arranged by her then-boyfriend, actor Marlon Brando.

Television presenter and writer Padma Lakshmi noted on Twitter that the ruling will mark a return to dangerous, back-alley procedures.

"People who have the money, time and resources will still find avenues for their procedures. But the most vulnerable of our community? What choices are those individuals... left with? This is the catalyst for a public health crisis," she said.

Singer Lizzo (above far right) concurred with Lakshmi's statement, and said on Twitter: "Black women and women of colour have historically had disproportionately less access to family planning resources. This is a great loss."

The singer went on to pledge US$500,000 (S$692,000) from her upcoming tour to Planned Parenthood, a non-profit organisation that offers safe access to abortions. Live entertainment company Live Nation has agreed to match the sum.

On stage at the BET Awards, which celebrates excellence in black entertainment, actress Taraji P. Henson thanked Lizzo for her donation, and lamented that "guns have more rights than a woman" in the US.

Meanwhile, singer Rodrigo spoke out against the Supreme Court decision last Saturday at Britain's Glastonbury music festival.

She said: "I'm devastated and terrified. So many girls and women are going to die because of this. I wanted to dedicate this next song to the five members of the Supreme Court who have showed us that they truly don't give a s**t about freedom."

Billie Armstrong, frontman of punk band Green Day, also used the Glastonbury stage to criticise the decision in a profanity-laden rant, and claimed that he would be renouncing his American citizenship. "There's just too much stupid in the world to go back to that miserable excuse for a country," he said.