The 1975 lead singer Matty Healy took the opportunity to critique the state’s new abortion ban and speak out about women’s rights when the band played a show at Hangout Music Fest in Alabama on Friday night. The new law is the most restrictive abortion bill ever passed since the medical procedure was legalized in 1973. The law makes abortion illegal at every stage of pregnancy including in the cases of rape and when a mother’s life is at risk. The Alabama law also puts doctors who perform the procedure at risk of jail time. As the bill sponsor State Rep. Terri Collins (R) himself said “The entire bill was designed to overturn [Roe v. Wade] and allow states to decide what is best for them.”
“We’re all here at a music festival in Alabama, would you look at that. So by proxy, we’re all in favor of freedom of expression,” Healy said during the performance. “You know what’s also important? Freedom for women to do with their reproductive systems what they want.”
Healy clarified his audience, saying his speech wasn’t meant only for the crowd. “I’m not preaching to you guys, I know that you’re on this side of us. But this is going out to the internet and there’s a bunch of f*cking wrongers on the internet, I’ll tell you that much.”
Healy told the crowd he read the entire law the night before and was shocked that it compared abortion to the Holocaust.
“It starts out by quoting the amount of Jews that died in the holocaust, then it goes on to talk about the Rwandan genocide, it talks about the Gulags, it talks about China, it talks about mass murder. There’s people, men, in the American government that are actively comparing harrowing difficult choices of female American citizens to the holocaust. That is a disgrace.”
Healy went on to say the lawmakers who made the Holocaust comparisons are “fundamentally uneducated.”
“What I’m saying is that if you think the holocaust is analogous of those things, people will call you a monster, but I will tell you you’re fundamentally uneducated. You are wrong. That is wrong. Those people should apologize to the Jews of America, they should apologize to the people of Rwanda. It’s a f*cking disgrace.”
Healy also said he thinks the law is more about controlling women’s bodies and less about Christian values. “The reason why I’m so angry is because I don’t believe it’s about the preservation of life, it’s about the controlling of women, and you can hide behind that as much as you want.”
“You are not men of God you’re simply misogynistic wankers,” Healy said, ending the speech before moving into the band’s next song.
Watch a fan-captured video of Matty Healy’s passionate speech.
Matty’s speech about performing in Alabama and the abortion ban @the1975 thank you pic.twitter.com/fxiREQin9C
— anna (@esnypilots) May 18, 2019
here’s @Truman_Black from @the1975 talking about the abortion ban at @Hangoutfest in Alabama. excuse my shaky hands!! pic.twitter.com/cZQul7XrYP
— paige (@paige_benjamin) May 18, 2019
Lady Gaga, Rihanna, and other musicians have also spoken out about the new law earlier this week. In a tweet, Gaga wrote, “This is a travesty and I pray for all these women and young girls who will suffer at the hands of this system.”
Rihanna posted a photo to Instagram depicting all of the Alabama senators who had a part in passing the restrictive bill and pointed out the lack of women involved. ““Take a look. These are the idiots making decisions for WOMEN in America,” Rihanna wrote.
