Pearl Jam has long been vocal about supporting reproductive rights. Now, they’re contributing to a compilation album to raise money for three reproductive rights groups.
Per Billboard, Pearl Jam is featured on Good Music to Ensure Safe Abortion Access to All. The compilation album features 49 tracks and will be available for purchase for only 24 hours on Bandcamp beginning on Friday, October 7 at 3 PM ET/12 PM ET. Other artists featured on the album include R.E.M. Tegan and Sara, Death Cab for Cutie, Wet Leg and more.
According to the listing on Bandcamp, the LP is made up of “previously-unreleased recordings – featuring new songs, covers, remixes, live versions & unreleased demos.”
All proceeds from the sale of the album will benefit the Abortion Care Network, Brigid Alliance and NOISE FOR NOW.
Pearl Jam’s support of reproductive rights dates back decades. Eddie Vedder famously wrote “Pro Choice” on his arm during the band’s 1992 appearance on MTV Unplugged.
That same year, Vedder penned an op-ed for Spin about abortion rights. When he wrote the op-ed, he was in Glasgow, Scotland. In nearby Ireland, The Irish Supreme Court was hearing a case about a 14-year-old girl who became pregnant after being raped by a friend of her father’s and whether the country would allow the girl to go to the U.K to obtain an abortion. (At the time, abortion was banned in Ireland. In 2018, the ban was reversed after a historic vote in the country.) The court eventually ruled the girl could travel to the U.K. to obtain an abortion.
“…As of this writing, the powers that be are deciding if a 14-year-old girl who was raped by the father of one of her friends should be allowed to leave for Britain to obtain an abortion,” wrote Vedder. “She’s been ordered not to leave the country for nine months. Fourteen years old. Raped. The issue of an unborn fetus takes on more importance than the fact that the rapist walks free.”
Later in the piece, Vedder alluded to have gotten someone pregnant who later terminated the pregnancy.
“Ten years old. That’s the age my child would have been,” he wrote. “And I would not be here in Glasgow. I wouldn’t be in this band or traveling. And I wouldn’t have seen the liberal ways in which other countries we have visited deal with this issue. I wouldn’t have been asked to write this piece. The fact that I’ve been through it on all levels is the only reason I accepted.”
