Ariana Grande Shows Support for Women’s Rights by Donating Thousands of Concert Proceeds to this Controversial Cause

Remember when pop star Ariana Grande held a benefit concert for the victims of the May 22nd Manchester bombing? Well, it looks like the singer’s charitable spirit is showing itself once again as the 25-year-old star reportedly made a generous donation towards Planned Parenthood.

Georgia Concert Donation

Planned Parenthood is an American nonprofit organization concerned with reproductive health rights

Grande’s $250,000 donation comes amidst the current wave of bills that hinder a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy. The amount reportedly came from the proceeds of the singer’s recent concert held in Atlanta, Georgia.

Just last month, the aforementioned state became the fourth one this year to make the termination of a pregnancy illegal once a heartbeat can be detected. This usually happens around only six weeks in a pregnancy, a time when most women don’t know they’re carrying a child yet, according to the National Health Service (NHS).

Other states which have tried to implement a similar policy are Ohio, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Kentucky. Meanwhile, Alabama has straight up banned all instances of pregnancy termination through the passing of new legislation.

‘Critical Time’

Dr. Wen was appointed as Planned Parenthood president in 2018

As expected, the organization’s head Dr. Leana Wen welcomed the singer’s donation and said that it came at a ‘critical time’. As Wen told People magazine, some politicians with an anti-women’s health stance are trying to outlaw all kinds of safe and legal means for women to terminate a pregnancy.

She also expressed her gratitude towards Grande for her continued commitment towards the fight for women’s rights and for standing with the organization as they defend people’s access to reproductive health care. In the end, Wen said that they ‘won’t stop fighting no matter what’.

Grande is only one of the many other celebrities and personalities who have expressed their disapproval of the new wave of bills. Fellow musicians Rihanna and Lady Gaga, and even London’s mayor Sadiq Khan have voiced out their opinions on the important and delicate issue.

Lady Gaga has even taken to Twitter to describe the new bills as an ‘outrage’ and a ‘travesty’. She also criticized them for not making exemptions for women who may have gotten pregnant under non-consensual situations.

Hot Topic

Lady Gaga and actress Alyssa Milano both expressed their disapproval of the bills on Twitter

While these laws are currently gaining widespread attention, they aren’t totally new. ‘Heartbeat’ bills are actually model bills that have been circulated and supported by various fringe groups, according to reports from Buzzfeed News. In fact, similar legislation has been passed and eventually struck down for being unconstitutional in North Dakota back in 2013. Many other bills like it have been written and introduced since, but none has actually ever been implemented officially.

But this fact isn’t stopping pro-choice advocates from ‘ringing alarms’ and showing their support for women’s rights to bodily autonomy. Even high-rank politicians like Senators Cory Brooker and Kamala Harris have expressed their criticisms against these bills.