Unless you’re on or watch Fox News, odds are you’re pretty outraged by what just went down in Alabama. After the State Senate voted to pass the country’s most restrictive anti-abortion bill — one that does not even include exceptions in cases of rape or incest — Governor Kay Ivey signed the ban into law. While even Ivey admits the law is more of a ploy in hopes of getting Roe v. Wade overturned rather than honest legislation, it’s still a cynical, gross, and dangerous political action.
Many public figures have spoken out against the bill, but Tim Heidecker has taken it a step further. He’s released a new song called “To the Men”, which speaks directly to the 25 white, male, Republican senators who voted to pass the bill.
The track tells the horrible tale of a newly 13-year-old girl who is convinced to have sex with a boy after school. Strict taboos mean she can’t tell her parents when she ends up pregnant and the father decides to disappear. With no recourse in a state where doctors performing abortions can be jailed for 99 years, she goes to a back alley clinic — and doesn’t survive.
It’s heartbreaking. It’s disgusting. And it’s exactly what the politicians in Alabama (and, as the song mentions, Ohio, Georgia, and elsewhere) just voted in favor of.
Proceeds from the song go to benefit The Yellowhammer Fund, which provides funding for those seeking care in any of Alabama’s three abortion clinics. (Clinics which, it’s important to remember, are thankfully still operating and will likely continue to operate as the law gets tied up in courts.) Listen to “To the Men” below.
Heidecker is set to release his new album, What the Brokenhearted Do…, on June 7th. Find the full “To the Men” lyrics below.
She was poor she was just 13
She was 12 a month ago
She was living in Alabama
She was living in Ohio
She was living in Georgia
She didn’t have anywhere to go
She was young, she didn’t know the rules
She didn’t think she could say no
thought it was love and it’d be forever
In a locker room after school
She couldn’t tell anybody
couldn’t tell her mom or dad
She didn’t know what to do
All she knew was that it was bad
She was living in Alabama
She was living in Ohio
She was living in Georgia
She didn’t have anywhere to go
Told a friend who had been down that road
Told a friend she was late
And the friend said she had no choice
Have the baby or get out of the state
The girl didn’t have much money
and the boy disappeared
for a week she said she wasn’t feeling good
as she rolled up in a ball of fear
She was living in Alabama
She was living in Ohio
She was living in Georgia
She didn’t have anywhere to go
There’s a place in the run down part of town
A place young girls stay far from
She could go and take her chances
In an hour the deed be done
To the men in theirs brown suits
To the men passing laws
I just have a simple question
To the men without flaws
Have you seen a young girl dying
Have you seen em bleed to death
Have you seen a young girl dying
Have you seen em take their final breath