Billie Eilish did not mince words over Texas’s new abortion law this past weekend. “I’m sick and tired of old men. Shut the fuck up about our bodies,” the singer said during her performance at the Austin City Limits Festival. Behind her set, a screen flashed the message: “Bans Off Our Bodies.”
In September, a new law went into effect that bans abortions after six weeks (when a fetal heartbeat is typically detected), even though the vast majority of women would not even be aware of a pregnancy within this time frame. The law makes no exceptions for cases including rape, and allows citizens to sue anyone helping a woman get an abortion. The ruling, the strictest in the country, was upheld by the Supreme Court earlier this summer, effectively providing a pathway for other states to create similar legislation.
News of the new law apparently prompted Eilish to nearly cancel her appearance in Austin. "When they made that shit a law, I almost didn't want to do the show, because I wanted to punish this fucking place for allowing that to happen here,” she told the crowd. “But then, I remembered that it's you guys that are the fucking victims, and you deserve everything in the world.”
Indeed the legislation is likely to victimize in particular those of Eilish’s fan base and generation — young women who are in particularly dire straits, without an option and forced to carry out an unwanted pregnancy regardless of circumstance. It’s the age-old tale of American politics: the old men that Eilish is deriding are dictating the lives of those whose experiences they are entirely divorced from, whether it’s a senator confused about Finsta, or those who, while controlling the bodies of millions of women, have never for a moment even considered why a woman would need an abortion in the first place:
“We need to tell them shut the fuck up,” Eilish proclaimed before putting up a middle finger that a sea of young fans mirrored. “My body, my fucking choice!”
