Olivia Rodrigo’s team will no longer allow abortion advocacy groups to hand out emergency contraceptives at her Guts World Tour stops, according to multiple media reports this week.
This comes after a viral social media post showed a fan holding morning-after pills from a recent concert in St. Louis, Missouri — a state with some of the strictest abortion laws in the country.
Though Rodrigo’s supporters had praised the distribution effort, abortion advocacy groups were reportedly told to stop giving out reproductive health resources like condoms, morning-after pills and lubrication, with the singer’s management citing the presence of children at concerts.
The National Network of Abortion Funds, which is partnering with Rodrigo’s team on her Fund 4 Good Initiative for reproductive rights, is said to have informed the groups about the new prohibition.
The Missouri Abortion Fund, which distributed resources at Rodrigo’s St. Louis show, told Variety that it was “our decision” to pass out emergency contraceptives at the concert.
“While we are disappointed to learn that other abortion funds will not get the same opportunity to do the same, we are encouraged by the overwhelmingly positive response,” Robin Frisella, the community engagement director for the Missouri Abortion Fund, said in a statement.
“We can’t speak to why this decision was made, but we hope this conversation highlights the work being done by abortion funds.”
HuffPost has reached out to representatives for Rodrigo and the National Network of Abortion Funds for comment.
The viral social media post from Missouri had led to backlash from conservatives like state Sen. Bill Eigel. The Republican politician, who is currently running a gubernatorial campaign, said that he was “horrified” by the distribution of contraceptives and incorrectly claimed that the morning-after pill is an abortifacient.
The Prairie Abortion Fund, which spoke to Jezebel ahead of a Minnesota concert Friday, said that it had hundreds of boxes of emergency contraceptives that it couldn’t take to the tour stop.
“We are missing the opportunity to share our resources and this feels almost performative when we have actionable things, like EC, that we could hand out to young people who encounter so many barriers to care,” the group’s chair, Destini Spaeth, told Jezebel.
Jade Hurley, a communications manager for the DC Abortion Fund, told Variety that young people “need access to birth control and emergency contraception.”
“The reality is that youth have sex,” Hurley said. “What we’re doing is completely legal in all 50 states.”
The news arrives weeks after Rodrigo announced her initiative to partner with local abortion advocacy groups. Fund 4 Good aims “to ensure those most impacted by systemic racism, misogyny, and healthcare barriers can get the reproductive care they deserve,” according to a description on the Entertainment Industry Foundation’s website.
At the time of the announcement, the singer had told fans that there’d be Fund 4 Good tables at her concerts with resources, and that a portion of proceeds from tickets sales would go toward the initiative.