UPDATE, 3/15/24: After receiving significant backlash, emergency contraceptives, lubricant, and condoms will no longer be distributed at Olivia Rodrigo’s concerts. Variety reports:
According to three sources at local abortion funds, that decision came from Rodrigo’s team and was relayed over Slack by the National Network of Abortion Funds, which partnered with the pop star to set up booths at each of her North American tour stops. Jade Hurley, the communications manager for the DC Abortion Fund, says the NNAF said Rodrigo’s team preferred they no longer pass out lubrication, condoms and Plan B because “children are present at the concerts.”
Of course, Rodrigo’s team likely already knew that children were to be expected as attendees at her concerts, but didn’t expect such backlash. The abortion organizations responded by saying that minors should be receiving these items, and some still plan to attend to hand out “information materials as well as hats, buttons and stickers” to promote themselves to the attendees, including minors (brand recognition is powerful, and they know it). Those whom Variety interviewed blamed “conservative pundits” and others for the backlash, as those who “villainize” “sex and sexual health tools — whether that be abortion, Plan B, [or] condoms… because you’re [seen as being] promiscuous.”
Distributing such items to minors, however, assumes that most minors are having sex or will soon have sex, despite the fact that some of them aren’t even old enough to legally consent to it. Sex is not a children’s recreational game; the fact that it has been treated as if it is has led to significant societal damage and a tremendous loss of preborn human life. This isn’t about promiscuity; it’s about recognizing that sexual activities involve significant risk — risks that minors are in no way prepared to take, physically or emotionally.
3/14/24: The Missouri Abortion Fund was on hand at singer Olivia Rodrigo’s concert in St. Louis on Tuesday to give out stickers and other items to concertgoers regarding abortion access, including QR codes asking the question: “Funding Abortion? It’s a good idea, right?” Doses of “Julie” emergency contraception were also distributed. Similar items were given away during her stop in Charlotte.
“It’s brutal out here in Missouri, but we are here for abortion access and hand out Plan B with [Text Right By You],” states a post on X by the Missouri Abortion Fund. Text Right By You is a “youth-focused text line connecting Missourians to abortion care, birth care, adoption and parenting supports, birth control, and information about their rights.”
The pro-abortion group handed out “Julie,” an emergency contraception that uses the same active ingredient (levonorgestrel) as the brand “Plan B One Step.” Other reports state condoms were also distributed.
Free Plan B is being given out at @OliviaRodrigo‘s GUTS WORLD TOUR in St. Louis tonight by @MOAbortionFund. pic.twitter.com/haP1XhUkK8
— Rodrigo Times (@RodrigoTimes) March 13, 2024
A former Disney star, Rodrigo is popular among young teens, and children as young as nine have been reported to be present at her current GUTS World Tour. There are age restrictions for her show, including not allowing anyone under the age of 14 to be present without an adult 18 or older, but parents are taking their children even younger than 14 to the concert.
Information on birth control, emergency contraception, and abortion is, therefore, potentially being given to any young children in attendance.
Some reporting has inaccurately indicated that Rodrigo was handing out “abortion pills” at her St. Louis show, but the abortion pill, mifepristone, is a different drug entirely.
The active ingredient in “Julie” is levonorgestrel, which has previously been described as having the ability to cause an abortion by preventing an embryo from attaching to the uterine lining. However, the FDA has now removed that description warning from boxes of the drug, and the FDA now states that levonorgestrel prevents pregnancy only by preventing ovulation.
Yet, questions still remain surrounding levonorgestrel.
she did this at charlotte too! same contraceptives <3 love her for this pic.twitter.com/TSvSnGaBEy
— phia ✦ (@phiasversion) March 13, 2024
Though “Julie” is not the abortion pill, handing out any ‘medications’ to Rodrigo’s audience that are directly related to sexual activity sends the message that sex is acceptable and even good for children and young teens, regardless of the fact that all ‘medications’ come with potential side effects.
Monica Cline worked as a family planning Training Manager and volunteer educator for Planned Parenthood for over 10 years before becoming pro-life, and has said that the goal of the organization’s sex education was not to educate children about sex, but to encourage it with the use of contraceptives — much as Rodrigo appears to be doing. The end goal was to prepare teens to have abortions at Planned Parenthood if they became pregnant. Cline explained that in her initial training, she was told to accept the idea that children as young as 10 were sexually active — but that if they weren’t, they would be soon.
Palm Desert, CA – February 23: Izalco Martinez, 9, looks on as he waits alongside others during the opening night of Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘Guts’ tour at Acrisure Arena on Friday, Feb. 23, 2024 in Palm Desert, CA. (Photo by Michael Blackshire/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Rodrigo seems to be openly promoting hookup culture at her shows, and encouraging her young fans to participate in casual and premarital sex. According to the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, “Retrospective reports of early sexual debut have been correlated with a greater number of sexual partners, lower levels of condom use, a greater chance of unintended pregnancy and a higher risk of self-reported STDs, as well as with other risk behaviors, including weapon-carrying and drug use.” Research shows that adverse outcomes linked to early sex are alcohol and drug use, depression, suicidal thoughts, and rape. Compared with peers who delay having sex, adolescents who engage in sex early are more likely to exhibit problematic alcohol use.
Rodrigo has been vocal about her support for abortion and recently announced that she is giving a portion of the proceeds from her GUTS tour to the National Network of Abortion Funds (NNAF), which provides money to women to travel to other states for abortions.
