Pop icon Taylor Swift says she “obviously” supports abortion and now regrets remaining apolitical throughout the 2016 election.
Speaking with The Guardian, the 29-year-old singer said that she “just can’t believe” her home state of Tennessee would ever consider protecting unborn babies in the womb.
“Obviously, I’m pro-choice,” Swift told the outlet. “I just can’t believe this is happening.”
Taylor Swift was referring to Tennessee now considering an all-out ban on the practice of abortion in the state. The bill passed the State House back in March and has been amended since to include even stricter penalties for those who obtain abortions illegally.
“Earlier this summer it was amended into an even bolder proposal: banning virtually all abortions by defining ‘viability’ to mean ‘that a male human sperm has penetrated the zona pellucida of the female ovum, which includes, but is not limited to, serial human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) determinations or the detection of a heartbeat in an unborn child,'” LifeSiteNews said of the bill. “Starting effectively at conception, the bill would make committing an abortion a Class C felony and revoke a violator’s medical license in all cases except to prevent the ‘death of the pregnant woman or to prevent serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman.'”
In the same interview with The Guardian, Swift lamented how American values have been twisted in the age of President Trump, likening his reign to an autocracy.
“We’re a democracy — at least, we’re supposed to be — where you’re allowed to disagree, dissent, debate. I really think that he thinks this is an autocracy,” she said.
Taylor Swift managed to stay largely apolitical throughout her career, but that all changed when feminists began to publicly chastise her for not endorsing Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election.
“If Taylor thinks that her public fallout with Kimye was the most damning public relations nightmare she endured last year, then she should probably expand her news diet,” wrote Marie Claire magazine at the time. “Fall of 2016 saw a slew of celebrities become outspokenly involved in the political process, as they should have … Whether she likes it or not, Taylor’s politics (or her perceived political apathy) are a part of her reputation, and a song addressing or at least acknowledging that (even if the song did not address her personal politics) would have been welcome.”
In the fall of 2018, Swift took the criticism to heart by opposing Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) during the midterm elections, choosing to endorse her male opponent, which was followed by her donating $113k to fight for LGBTQ equality.
As to why she remained out of politics during the 2016 election, Swift told The Guardian that she experienced a tremendous amount of family drama that year, forcing her to keep a low-profile in order to maintain her mental health.
“I was just trying to protect my mental health — not read the news very much, go cast my vote, tell people to vote. I just knew what I could handle and I knew what I couldn’t. I was literally about to break,” she said, adding that she felt “really remorseful for not saying anything.”
Swift assured her fans that she will be actively engaged in the fight to overthrow President Trump during the 2020 elections.