New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Cyndi Lauper has responded to the overturned Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision by releasing a new version of her abortion rights song, "Sally's Pigeons." Lauper went into the studio just after the Supreme Court draft opinion was leaked in May to make this new acoustic version.
First released in 1993, Lauper wrote "Sally's Pigeons" based on the story of a childhood friend, who in her teens got pregnant, had a back-alley abortion and died due to the attempted procedure. "The Supreme Court's radical decision today makes the re-recording and re-release of 'Sally's Pigeons' more relevant than ever. In my childhood, women didn't have reproductive freedom and 50 years later we find ourselves in a time warp where one's freedom to control their own body has been stripped away. When I wrote this song with Mary Chapin Carpenter in 1991, we wrote about two little girls who dreamt of stretching their wings like the pigeons they watched that flew above them. They dreamt of being free. But freedom then for women and unfortunately now comes at a big price. If we don't have control over our own bodies then we have no real freedom. We are second class citizens. We need to mobilize. We need to let our voices be heard," says Lauper.
Listen to "Sally's Pigeons" here:
Lauper has been a longtime outspoken and fearless advocate for abortion rights as well as for women and the LGBTQ+ community.
Lauper is encouraging fans to donate to the National Network of Abortion Funds if they are able, and to use it as a resource to access safe abortion services if needed: https://www.abortionfunds.org