Alaina Demopoulos at The Guardian:
Madelyn Ritter expected to leave the St Louis date of Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts Tour with merch – she didn’t expect to also go home with some free emergency contraception.
But that’s just what she saw upon entering the stadium. There, right by the women’s bathrooms, was a table where concertgoers could donate to abortion funds and pick up free condoms and morning-after pills, also called Plan B.
“We noticed it immediately,” said Ritter, who is 25 (and, as she jokes, “too old” to love the 21-year-old pop star). “I was like: ‘What’s this about?’ They told me it was free, so my sister, her friend and I all took some. I personally don’t need it, but I’m going to save it in case something bad happens.”
Last month, in conjunction with her world tour, Rodrigo launched the Fund 4 Good campaign, which aims to protect women’s and girls’ reproductive rights. A portion of sales from the tour will go toward the fund. As part of the initiative, Rodrigo paired with the National Network of Abortion Funds, which connected her with local chapters at various stops on the tour.
“There are plenty of singers making a stand about social issues, but I’ve never seen anything like this,” Ritter said.
Abortion is illegal in Missouri. (It is only permitted in the case of an emergency that threatens the life of a pregnant person.) Missouri Republicans are also trying to defund Planned Parenthood, which provides reproductive healthcare like STI screenings and contraception in the state.
Activists who staffed the table Ritter stopped by came from Right by You, a youth-focused text line that connects Missouri teens to abortion care out of state, birth control and information about their rights, and the Missouri Abortion Fund, which helps people cover the cost of an out-of-state abortion.
God Bless Olivia Rodrigo! Glad to see her taking a stand against Missouri's oppressive anti-abortion laws by giving out free emergency contraception items.
See Also:
PinkNews: Olivia Rodrigo hands out free Plan B tablets at Missouri tour, where abortion has a total ban
111 notes
·
View notes
Cheers to Olivia Rodrigo! 🍻👍🏼
Pop singer Olivia Rodrigo teamed up with the Missouri Abortion Fund to give out free emergency birth control pills and condoms to concertgoers at her St. Louis show.
Rodrigo visited St. Louis on Tuesday evening as part of her GUTS world tour. X user @cowboylikekin posted a viral photo of the condoms and Julie contraceptive pills that were distributed at the concert. The image has been liked more than 30,000 times.
Volunteers with the Missouri Abortion Fund handed out the pills, condoms and stickers at Tuesday’s concert. The nonprofit aims to provide assistance to Missouri residents who cannot afford the cost of abortion care.
Missouri has been taken over by far right MAGA extremists. Fortunately there is a ballot measure being proposed to restore reproductive freedom in the state.
Abortion rights advocates with Missourians for Constitutional Freedom are pushing for a ballot measure through Missouri’s initiative petition process, looking to amend Missouri’s constitution with a law that would make abortion legal until viability.
To place the issue on this November’s ballot, the campaign must collect around 180,000 signatures in support of the petition and turn the signatures in to the Missouri Secretary of State’s Office by May 5.
If you're in Missouri, consider lending a hand with the ballot measure.
Missourians for Constitutional Freedom
And whichever state you live in, get more involved in state politics and particularly the state legislature. Most of the far right anti-freedom badness originates in legislatures in red states. Start by discovering who represents your legislative district(s).
Find Your Legislators
Look your legislators up by address or use your current location.
Only one party is dedicated to restoring reproductive freedom nationally.
26 notes
·
View notes
Cheers to Olivia Rodrigo for her support of reproductive rights!
The all-GOP Alabama Supreme Court has reminded the country that Republicans will never be happy until they are able to control every aspect of reproduction and sexuality of people in the United States. They worked for 49 years to repeal Roe v. Wade. We need to be just as determined to push back.
It takes guts to stand up for important causes, but Olivia Rodrigo is as gutsy as they come. Shortly before taking the stage at Acrisure Arena in Palm Springs, Calif., for the opening night of her Guts World Tour Friday (Feb. 23), the 21-year-old pop star marked the launch of her Fund 4 Good supporting reproductive rights with a video on social media.
[ ... ]
Rodrigo also reminded fans that a portion of the proceeds from her ticket sales will go toward the Fund 4 Good, as well as the National Network of Abortion Funds in North America. “Thank you so much for supporting this cause that I care so deeply about,” she added. “I can’t wait to see you all on tour.”
6 notes
·
View notes
We have reached the second Building Interlude this week -- and this time, it’s actually relevant to what’s been happening in the main Chill Valicer save, as it’s a small makeover of the Valicer farmhouse! A makeover that was inspired by the following things:
1. My desire to clean out the household inventory so I didn’t have to go scrolling through all their various holiday decorations and whatnot whenever I wanted them to recycle a trash pile
2. My desire to also clean out their PERSONAL inventories -- particularly Victor’s, as he’s always carrying around loads of fruit and flowers and whatnot from the greenhouse to have on-hand for juicing and whatnot
3. “My Sims have over $100K in the bank? Time to jazz the place up a little!”
So yes, with all that in mind, I went ahead and, well, jazzed the place up a little. XD Here’s a list of all the most major changes:
Kitchen: I decided it was a little too brown in there and changed out the counters to ones with at least slightly more colorful tops (the Realm of Magic counters, if I recall correctly!), darkening up the wood-tones of the cabinets to match. I also replaced the fridge and the stove with Schmapple-brand ones to match their coffee maker and microwave (like I said, they have money now!), recoloring them all to the red swatch as I liked that best. After that, I got a longer side table to store both the VIP bucket and the picnic basket --
And then moved the entire dining table in slightly, because ta-da, we have an archway into the kitchen now! Yeah, I took another look at that wall and realized that the door kind of looked weird next to the arches into the front foyer and the study, so I put another archway to match. Now the downstairs feels more cohesive!
Study: Just one quick change in here -- I changed the wallpaper color to the blue with green trim swatch, as I decided I wanted a little more color in the room. I think it looks nice, and fits well with the rugs!
Front Foyer: A little rearranging FINALLY allowed me to put the coat-and-hat pegs that I had on a side wall beside the door, where they could actually be SEEN. Naturally, the shoe rack went underneath them, and the umbrella stand got moved to the far corner. Looks good! (I -- am reasonably certain the clock was there before, as part of an earlier upgrade, but if not, look, colorful clock.)
Living Room: As you can see, I went heavy on the Movie Hangout Stuff furniture in here -- replacing the downstairs couch with this nice wooden seat that has a nice colorful cushion AND matches the bookcases, and the side tables with these brightly painted variations. :) The coffee table also got a more colorful upgrade (pretty sure that’s the Paranormal Stuff one) -- but, of course, the biggest upgrade was to the TV, with me selling off the old Fallout 4 CC one to get a proper big screen for them to enjoy, along with a cute yellow trunk TV table for it to sit on. They may not watch TV often, but they might as well enjoy a proper-sized screen. The bizarre idol Smiler got recently watches over it all in her own little house shelf above said TV. :)
Crafting/Party Barn: The whole thing is ever so slightly bigger now, and that is to accommodate something new in Smiler’s party space -- namely, I have traded out the bubble blower (which none of Smiler’s guests seemed to like the one time I had them give it a spin) for their ping-pong table! Technically it fit in the smaller version of the barn, but I felt like it blocked the radio a bit too much, so I expanded things out to keep the “dance floor.” I also took the opportunity to rearrange the downstairs a bit -- adding some extra columns to “support” the party level, then moving the more technical crafting stuff (Smiler’s robotics bench and the Fabricator) to the front while the more low-tech crafty stuff (the woodworking bench and the candle maker) went in the back, with Victor’s alchemy cauldron in the middle. :) I even got to put the cool magical stone circle in there -- sized down slightly, of course. :p
(Oh, and outside, you may notice that the chicken coop pen is now flush with the corner of the barn, and that I’ve gotten rid of the large livestock barn. The gang seems to have enough to do with just remembering to take care of the chickens -- I don’t think they’re gonna get a cow or llama anytime soon!)
Greenhouse: Victor’s greenhouse actually got moved back slightly on the lot -- a somewhat fiddly process that involved enlarging the roof before adjusting the walls so that the plants stayed under cover the whole time. I also added a new shelf from Cottage Living beside the door to go with his other tools, and put his selfie with his first oversized pumpkin on it. :) The biggest change, though, was to the crafting side of the greenhouse -- namely, there’s now STORAGE! The flower-arranging bench can already have flowers stored in it, so that wasn’t a big deal, but now there is an Eco Lifestyle cardboard storage box next to the cauldron grill for Victor’s herbalism plants, and a Discover University mini-fridge so he can store and access his fruits and veggies for juicing next to the juice fizzer! Which makes life so much easier -- his inventory isn’t PERFECT yet, but it’s looking a hell of a lot better, let me tell you!
5 notes
·
View notes
Putting some positivity out there about the election
Harris has raised a record amount of money from small donors after Biden dropped out, in addition to being able to access all the funds from their campaign they already had
Trump is deeply unpopular and people have already seen the chaos that 4 years of his presidency would bring. A lot of people have been energized to vote against him, even if they're not fond of Dems
Polling showed a red wave for Republicans in the 2022 midterms, and yet they only barely had control of the House, and couldn't even agree on a Speaker for a historic amount of time. Dems also increased their lead in the Senate. Historically, midterms favor the opposition party and have lower turnout, so this is a good sign for the House in 2024
Dems are fighting back in swing states. PA and GA both put in Democratic senators in the midterms
In my home state of PA, I am from Bucks County, which is a swing county for the state. Moms for Libery took over the school board and used it to attack queer students, enact book bans, and funnel money to themselves and the superintendent. At the most recent election, Dems turned out and took back every single open seat, ousting the board and superintendent. Worry about similar takeovers in surrounding school boards also increased turnout
Abortion rights are on the ballot in many states, which has been a winning issue for Dems and increased turnout
Republicans were prepared to attack a feeble old Biden who isn't the strongest speaker. I don't think they expected him to actually drop out, and they now have to put an 78 year old convicted felon up against a prosecutor
Awareness of Project 2025 and it's contents has entered the public sphere and is being much more openly discussed on the news. While Trump has insisted he has nothing to do with it, most of the authors worked in his administration and Trump has worked closely with the Heritage foundation
Feel free to add more things on this thread, but the most important thing is to get out there and VOTE
Vote for President
Vote for Senators
Vote for Congresspeople
Vote in your local elections
Vote Blue down ballot
25K notes
·
View notes