Rage Against the Machine will donate $475,000 to reproductive rights groups in Wisconsin and Illinois, the band announced late Friday night (June 24). The decision comes following the Supreme Court’s ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade, which had protected a woman’s choice to have an abortion.
“We are disgusted by the repeal of Roe v. Wade and the devastating impact it will have on tens of millions of people,” Rage Against the Machine noted on Instagram. “Over half of the country (26 states) is likely to ban or seriously restrict abortion very soon, if not immediately, which will have a disproportionate impact on poor, working class and undocumented BIPOC communities.”
They continued: “To date, our fans have raised $475,000.00 from the sale of our charity tickets at Alpine Valley and the United Center. We are donating that money to reproductive rights organizations in Wisconsin and Illinois.”
“Like the many women who have organized sophisticated railroads of resistance to challenge these attacks on our collective reproductive freedom, we must continue to resist,” wrote the band.
In a tweet posted on his own account on Saturday, the band’s Tom Morello opened up about his great-grandparents’ personal experience with having to seek an illegal abortion.
“My great grandmother, Mary Maude Fitzgerald, died from an illegal, unsafe abortion,” Morello wrote on Twitter. “Her widower, Thomas Fitzgerald, an itinerant worker, couldn’t raise their 3 kids alone & sent them off to families that took them as servants. He died alone of TB in a work camp.”
Rage Against the Machine’s Public Service Announcement Tour begins on July 9 at Wisconsin’s Alpine Valley Music Theatre. Get ticket information and a full list of tour dates on their website.
My great grandmother, Mary Maude Fitzgerald, died from an illegal, unsafe abortion. Her widower, Thomas Fitzgerald, an itinerant worker, couldn’t raise their 3 kids alone & sent them off to families that took them as servants. He died alone of TB in a work camp. #WeWillNotGoBack https://t.co/K41PkCmB1I
— Tom Morello (@tmorello) June 25, 2022