Editor's note: This article quotes vulgar language.
Pop superstar Demi Lovato has received pushback online from several influential pro-life commenters for her new crass pro-abortion anthem titled "Swine."
The profanity-filled song and accompanying music video was released late last month on the one-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision overturning Roe V. Wade, ruling that the U.S. Constitution doesn't confer a right to abortion.
In the verse, Lovato shouts: "God forbid, I wanna suck whatever the f— I wanna/God forbid, I wanna f— whoever the f— I want/And if he c—, I guess I gotta be a mother," adding, "My life, my voice/My rights, my choice/It's mine, or I'm just swine."
The 30-year-old former Disney star, who goes by they/them pronouns, compared women who get abortions to the victims of the Salem Witch Trials.
"We gotta grow 'em, we gotta raise 'em, we gotta feed and bathe 'em," she sings. "And if you won't, they call you a witch to burn at the stake in Salem/Thought by now they'd change, but we're still waiting/Let's give these [plural expletive] hell."
With 17 million subscribers, Lovato's new single has 600,000 views to date on YouTube.
Popular Christian Youtuber Ruslan KD created a video response last week with the title: "Demi Lovato MOCKS Bible in DEMONIC New Song?"
"Demi Lovato quit being a 'them' so that she could write a woman's rights anthem. I cannot make this up ladies and gentlemen," he said in the video. "I would just like it to be known that Demi Lovato is getting ratioed by people in the dislikes section of this video. 47,000 dislikes versus [49,000] likes and the video has 493,000 views in seven days."
Lovato, who performed at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, first announced the video on Instagram.
"It's been one year since the Supreme Court's decision to dismantle the constitutional right to a safe abortion, and although the path forward will be challenging, we must continue to be united in our fight for reproductive justice," she wrote in her post.
"I created 'SWINE' to amplify the voices of those who advocate for choice and bodily autonomy. I want this song to empower not only the birthing people of this country but everyone who stands up for equality, to embrace their agency and fight for a world where every person's right to make decisions about their own body is honored."
Her use of the term "birthing people" instead of "women" upset many who commented on her post.
The prominant pro-life activist organization Live Action posted a video response by one of its supporters.
"This is a terrible song, and the lyrics were written to reduce a woman to her body. Demi, do you really think that the only thing women are good for is sex, to please others, and to be pleased? Are we not valuable human beings that should respect [ours and our children's bodies]?" the young woman in the video said. "Defending the lives of our own children in the womb does not make us swine or pigs. It makes us strong. We have a superpower that can grow human beings inside of our wombs, and it should never be reduced or mocked."
Conservative media personality Ben Shapiro also posted a video response claiming, "Demi has officially gone off of the deep end" and is now "fully evil."
Popular Christian podcaster Allie Beth Stuckey had her take on Lovato's single.
"She says that if she can't choose to have an abortion, then she's just swine. She's just a pig. I think it's very interesting that she chooses that terminology, that she chooses that word. We see swine or pigs used a lot in Scripture as an example of being unclean. And I think specifically, I think specifically of the story in Mark 5 when Jesus casts the demons out of the man who was wandering in the cemetery," Stuckey passionately shared in a recent podcast.
"It just seems a little bit comparable here. It seems like that's kind of what's going on. These are demonic ideas. She's calling herself a swine, of all things because she can't have an abortion. These are definitely pig-like assertions that she's making," she continued. "Like she is basically glorifying selfishness. She's glorifying this kind of crass, promiscuous lifestyle where she should be able to choose what she wants to do, whatever she feels like doing in any moment, no matter the consequences that have to be endured by other people."
Abby Johnson, famous for once working as a Planned Parenthood clinic director but now is one of America's most outspoken pro-life advocates, made a TikToc video criticizing Lovato.
"Now I guess she's a woman again for this video. Someone needs attention," Johnson declared. "Anyway, the entire song is her screaming vulgarities about how she should be able to F who she wants to F and give [oral sex] to every guy she knows, and that the government shouldn't be regulating her body."
"Well, actually, Demi, the government isn't regulating your body when it comes to abortion. I mean, they do regulate your body all the time when it comes to other things like seatbelt laws and drinking and driving laws and even speed limits. But abortion laws are in place so that you're not murdering the separate body growing inside of your body. A woman and a child in the womb are two different bodies."
"Demi screams in the song that we gotta 'grow them, raise them feed and bathe them' in reference to having children. It blows my mind that we live in a time where people who make the choice to do the thing, sex, that creates babies think that they shouldn't have any consequences and should just be able to murder children rather than raise them. Yes, you should be growing them, raising them, feeding them and bathing them, you know, I mean, taking responsibility for your actions. That's what men and women do. That's what they're designed to do. After they create these, they're not designed to just pull up to a Planned Parenthood and have their child slaughtered."
Johnson said the messaging celebrating casual sex is very "harmful to women."
"It increases rates of depression. It's emotionally damaging for women. Of course, there's STDs. Why not encouraged women to value their bodies and who they give their bodies to?" she questioned. "Demi Lovato encapsulates how broken our culture is in one song. ... Do the opposite of whatever she does and you will most likely lead a happy and healthy life. And Demi, you actually did show us that you value yourself as much as swine."
Lovato is donating the profits of her song to organizations that support abortion.
