Planned Parenthood have teamed up with hundreds of artists — including some of our favourite pop queens, such as Billie Eilish, Kacey Musgraves and Carly Rae Jepsen — to help recruit voters for the upcoming US Election. As we near the end of October, the days grow darker, the trees shrink into skeletons, and the 2020 presidential election looms closer — it’s an undeniably scary time in an especially scary year. Not least because confirmed human rights-hater Amy Coney Barrett has just been shoved into the Supreme Court. But demoralisation is a political tool, and we can’t let it keep us from voting for a better future.
The healthcare organisation published full-page ads in six different swing-state newspapers signed by a host of the biggest musicians. “United, our voices can change the direction of this country. Voting shapes our lives and has lasting effects,” reads the ad. “After the rushed confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett, in the midst of a pandemic, we now face a Supreme Court that puts our health and freedoms, including our right to safe and legal abortion, at extreme risk. The damage already inflicted on our country will last for generations. We can’t afford any further assaults on our reproductive freedom — our right to control our bodies. We need your voice. This election, more than any other, will determine our health, rights and our future. Now, we decide. We need every voice. Vote, because your body is your own.” You heard them! Now, go vote! Preferably early! And not by mail if you can, because the Republicans are trying really hard to sabotage that.
Alexis McGill Johnson, president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, restated the importance of voting this year. “Everything is on the line with this election. Voters across the country understand that we need leaders who will fight to protect our rights and access to health care in every branch of government,” she said. “We are proud to partner with musicians for We Need Every Voice to mobilize more people to use their voices and their votes to help elect leaders that will protect our futures, our health, our rights, and our freedoms.”
