Olivia Rodrigo partnered with the Center for Reproductive Rights to dispel misinformation around midwifery, abortion bans, and the maternal health crisis. In a series of interviews, the musician spoke with three figures at the global legal advocacy organization, including an associate director of litigation and two senior attorneys, about what people often get wrong about the fight for abortion access.
“Honestly, it’s brutal out there,” Autumn Katz, Associate Director, U.S. Litigation, answered in response to Rodrigo’s question about what it’s like connecting with people who live in states with active abortion bans. “Since Roe fell, the Center has challenged abortion bans in 10 states, and the stories that we hear from our clients are really gut-wrenching.”
They discussed Zurawski v. State of Texas, the case in which Amanda Zurawski, who nearly died of sepsis after being denied abortion care at 18 weeks. It’s one of many horror stories to come out of the restrictive laws around treatment. Katz recalls talking to a woman “who had to be airlifted out of the hospital where she was seeking treatment and flown to another state in order to receive healthcare.”
“Not very pro-life to harm these women’s health for the long term and see them in the ICU,” Rodrigo said. “It’s just so terrifying.” Back in 2024, the musician received pushback from pro-life senators and advocates after her Fund 4 Good organization handed out contraceptives and morning-after pills during her tour stop in Missouri, which adopted incredibly strict abortion bans following the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Rodrigo sat with Meetra Mehdizadeh, Senior Attorney, U.S. Litigation, to discuss issues in the reproductive healthcare space that aren’t widely spoken about, but may still be dangerous. Mehdizadeh specifically highlighted the targeting of access to the medication mifepristone. Medication abortions account for the majority of abortions. “We have decades of studies showing that it is safe and effective, millions of people have gotten medication abortions since mifepristone was FDA approved,” Mehdizadeh said. “But right now, anti-abortion extremists are trying to get additional, unnecessary restrictions added to mifepristone to make it more difficult to access.”
In her conversation with Senior Attorney Hillary Schneller, Rodrigo sought out information about restrictive midwifery laws that perpetuate the U.S. maternal mortality rate. Schneller is currently working a case in which midwives are suing the state of Georgia for putting laws in place to prevent them from practicing. Midwives are often seen as a counter to traditional hospital deliveries, in which Black women in particular are at higher risk of mistreatment.
“Black women die at three times the rate of white women, and none of this is inevitable,” Schneller said. “So much of it is preventable, and we know that midwives are a big part of the solution. Unfortunately, many states like Georgia restrict them and prohibit them outright from practicing and supporting families.” Rodrigo wondered if the attack on midwifery stems from anything beyond “wanting to control women and bring them down.
Schneller traces it back to a history of racist, sexist campaigns against midwives, especially in the south. “The laws we still have today are part of that legacy that still infect the the broken system that we have,” she said. The change required must target “those bad laws that have been on the books for honestly, in some cases, decades, 100 years.”
Rodrigo has long vocalized her support for abortion rights, telling a Washington, D.C. audience in 2022, “Our bodies should never be in the hands of politicians. I hope we can raise our voices to protect our right to have a safe abortion, which is a right that so many people before us have worked so hard to get. So important.”
