Singer-songwriter Lucy Dacus announced on Thursday that in the wake of Texas Senate Bill 8 — which makes the country’s second-most populous state’s abortion ban the most restrictive not only the U.S., but one of the most restrictive in the world — she will donate the proceeds from the four Texas dates on her forthcoming tour to grass-roots pro-abortion funds in the state. That includes ticket and merch sales, and her management is waiving its commission as well.
“Whenever I see something that makes me upset, I try to think, ‘What can I do about this?’” she told Rolling Stone. “If I can’t do anything, I try to not panic. But if I can, I try to mobilize. As I had the thought, I wrote the tweet,” she said, referring to her announcement on Thursday. “It was just like, ‘That’s something I can do.’”
The law — which went into effect on Wednesday after the U.S. Supreme Court, which includes three Trump appointees, declined to block it — bans abortions after approximately six weeks of pregnancy, despite the 1973 Supreme Court decision that established a constitutional right to the procedure. Other states have passed similar laws, but those measures face legal challenges. The law does not make exceptions for rape or incest. (Head here for more on the law.)
“I have been getting a wonderful flood of resources in, with names of funds,” she continued. “There’s one called the Lilith Fund. There’s one called Buckle Bunnies. And there’s this ActBlue Support Texas Abortion Funds link that splits your donation between Support Your Sistah at the Afiya Center, Whole Woman’s Health Alliance, the Bridge Collective, the Lilith Fund, Jane’s Due Process, Frontera Fund, Fund Texas Choice, Texas Equal Access Fund, Clinic Access Support Network, and West Fund. A lot of charities have a ton of overhead, and the money that you donate often goes to administrative costs and other expenses. But these smaller, grassroots organizations of volunteers, the money that you give is actually directly getting to people who need it most of the time. And there are hard costs with abortion that are often too much for an individual, but attainable enough that donations really result in something: Paying the cost for a procedure, or the pill, or travel.”
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