Nearly two years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in the Dobbs decision, abortion access in the U.S. is under serious threat. “Getting an abortion today requires more money, more time, and more planning than it ever has before,” says Oriaku Njoku, executive director of the National Network of Abortion Funds. She adds that the 100 member organizations that are part of her group have noticed a concurrent decline in donations to abortion funds — a dropoff that couldn’t come at a worse time.
Enter Olivia Rodrigo. Last Friday, when she kicked off her Guts world tour in southern California, the pop singer announced the launch of Fund 4 Good, a new initiative for reproductive health. Named in reference to her 2021 hit “good 4 u,” the fund will direct a share of all ticket proceeds from North American stops of the Guts tour to the NNAF — helping the group’s local chapters eliminate barriers to abortion access in a multitude of ways, whether that’s covering the cost of the procedure itself or the costs of travel, childcare, and lost wages for people who need abortions. “It’s going right back into communities who need help,” Njoku says.
Beyond that financial support, the spotlight that a Gen Z pop star like Rodrigo brings to abortion funds and reproductive healthcare overall is immeasurable. “It feels like this huge opportunity to show how fierce and badass abortion funds are,” Njoku adds.
Rodrigo has long been vocal about her support for reproductive rights. In 2022, the day after the Dobbs decision, she took the Glastonbury stage with Lily Allen, dedicating Allen’s 2009 hit “Fuck You” to the five Supreme Court justices who struck down Roe. “I’m devastated and terrified,” Rodrigo told the audience. “So many women and so many girls are going to die because of this.”
It’s a bleak reality, but by partnering with NNAF, Rodrigo is providing a measure of hope. “It’s moments like this where you’ll get to be in partnership with someone like Olivia Rodrigo that remind us that there are moments of joy in the midst of a lot of this hardship,” Njoku says.
Livies, as Rodrigo’s most devoted fans are known, will have the opportunity to directly interact with people who are fighting for reproductive rights on the ground, with local member organization tents set up at each Guts tour stop in the U.S. “This idea of leading the Livies into the movement towards reproductive freedom feels so poignant,” Njoku says. The chapters will share information about abortion funds, abortion access, and how anti-abortion legislation is affecting local communities.
This week, the Guts tour takes on Texas — a key battleground in the fight for abortion rights — with stops in Houston, Dallas, and Austin. “It sheds light on the local work that folks are doing on the ground,” says Anna Rupani, executive director of the NNAF-affiliated group Fund Texas Choice. “When you’re in Texas versus when you’re in New York, the realities are so different. In Texas, for example, our clients are traveling thousands of miles round trip to get to the care they need.”
While NNAF works with local funds across the country, there’s a power to their presence in a state like Texas, which has had particularly draconian anti-abortion laws since Dobbs. “Being present and visible feels like this joyful act of resistance in spite of what the laws are,” Njoku adds.
While Rodrigo is not the first musician to actively support abortion funds — Lizzo, Paramore, and Lucy Dacus, among others, have all donated tour profits to such funds in the past — the timing and manner in which she is helping feels noteworthy to Njoku. “Being able to unapologetically talk about abortion and uplift abortion funds in this way feels like such a great use of this platform,” she says. It feels cheesy to say so, but Njoku can’t help themselves: “It takes guts to fund abortions at this moment.”