Songs about abortion S/D

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I can't think of any, but it is quite early and I'm not fully caffeinated yet. I'm particularly interested in songs about abortion from a male perspective, if there are any.

― hmmm (hmmm), Thursday, 18 March 2004 09:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Search: Sex Pistols - Bodies

― Sym (shmuel), Thursday, 18 March 2004 09:58 (twenty-two years ago)

The notorious "Diary of an Unborn Child" by Lil' Markie, and the Smiths' "This Night Has Opened My Eyes".

― Jedmond (Jedmond), Thursday, 18 March 2004 10:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Search the Smiths' song, what to do with the other song, I'm not sure, ILMers (who have heard "Diary" can give their own opinions.

― Jedmond (Jedmond), Thursday, 18 March 2004 10:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Destroy that Ben Folds song.

― anode (anode), Thursday, 18 March 2004 10:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Beatles 'She's Leaving Home' ('man from the motor trade' = slang for having a termination) or is this an urban myth?

― stevo (stevo), Thursday, 18 March 2004 10:07 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah, Ben Folds Five - Brick, i hate that song

― D Aziz (esquire1983), Thursday, 18 March 2004 10:20 (twenty-two years ago)

I like that sng. Where's the pro-choice songs at?

― Sym (shmuel), Thursday, 18 March 2004 10:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Surely Sonic Youth have one somewhere

― hmmm (hmmm), Thursday, 18 March 2004 10:47 (twenty-two years ago)

SEARCH: Slayer - Silent Scream

― Johnny Badlees (crispssssss), Thursday, 18 March 2004 11:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Search: Sinead O Connor - Three Babies

― Joe Kay (feethurt), Thursday, 18 March 2004 12:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Mekons - "Born To Choose"
Comet Gain - "Just Fourteen"

These also come to mind but are probably more about unplanned pregnancy generally:

Madonna - "Papa Don't Preach"
Dizzee Rascal - "Jezebel"

― Nag! Nag! Nag! (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Thursday, 18 March 2004 12:17 (twenty-two years ago)

ice cube talks about performing an abortion with a coat hanger on "you can't fade me". it's a great track, twisted but actually quite funny.

on "suicidal thoughts" notorious says he bets his mom wishes she had an abortion.that's another great track, but it's not really *about* abortion i suppose.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Thursday, 18 March 2004 12:27 (twenty-two years ago)

I can't believe nobody's mentioned Graham Parker's "You Can't Be Too Strong."

― Jazzbo (jmcgaw), Thursday, 18 March 2004 13:20 (twenty-two years ago)

"Abortion" by New York's own proto-hardcore mooks, Kraut

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 18 March 2004 13:29 (twenty-two years ago)

'abortion' by black uhuru.

― stirmonster, Thursday, 18 March 2004 13:32 (twenty-two years ago)

"Hellbound," by the Breeders, right?

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Thursday, 18 March 2004 14:54 (twenty-two years ago)

Neil Young, "Song X," from the Mirror Ball record. In part, about the murderous anti-abortion protesters in the US:

"Romeo and Juliet, the doctor and his case, without a plan they left the van and there were laid to waste...
The priest was there with sandy hair, religion by his side, he saw his law was broken, the punishment was applied."

― Josh in NC, Thursday, 18 March 2004 15:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Cindy Lee Berryhill, "Baby, Should I Have a Baby or Not?" VERY classic.

― Begs2Differ (Begs2Differ), Thursday, 18 March 2004 15:15 (twenty-two years ago)

There's a Freedy Johnsotn song that kind of seems like it's about abortion - I think it's called "If It's True." Destroy that one.

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Thursday, 18 March 2004 15:18 (twenty-two years ago)

If I'm remembering the lyrics correctly, "Baby's Gone" by Heavens To Betsy (a song so dreadful that it kept me from listening to Sleater-Kinney for years.)

― dlp9001, Thursday, 18 March 2004 15:31 (twenty-two years ago)

Mojo Nixon - "May the Fetus Be Aborted"
i don't like it enough to S but others' MMV.

― echoinggrove (echoinggrove), Thursday, 18 March 2004 16:02 (twenty-two years ago)

There's a really good Fiona Apple song but the name escapes me right now.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 18 March 2004 16:07 (twenty-two years ago)

I vaguely remember reading somewhere that the Banshees' "Carousel" was about abortion and a quick scan of the lyrics reveals...

their tiny hands
their tiny feet
such little hearts
to miss a beat

Googling cames up with this lot

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Thursday, 18 March 2004 16:09 (twenty-two years ago)

This was the first 7" I ever bought. For some reason.

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Thursday, 18 March 2004 16:14 (twenty-two years ago)

"Ruby on the Ferris Wheel" - Sun City Girls
"Book of Revelations" - Sun City Girls

― brock (brock), Thursday, 18 March 2004 18:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Nirvana - Penny Royal Tea

― mei (mei), Thursday, 18 March 2004 19:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Qwel ft. Robust "19.99 AD"

Classic, classic, classic.

― Rollie Pemberton (Rollie Pemberton), Thursday, 18 March 2004 19:56 (twenty-two years ago)

I've never heard it, but you can most assuredly destroy Seals & Croft's "Unborn Child".

And then there's "I Shot the Sheriff", sorta: "Every time I plant a seed/He say, 'Kill it before it grow'"

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Thursday, 18 March 2004 19:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Blackgirls - Procedure

― udu wudu (udu wudu), Thursday, 18 March 2004 20:05 (twenty-two years ago)

Definately search "Will the Fetus be aborted?" by Jello Biafra with Mojo Nixon & the Toadliquors.

Also "You Should be Ashamed" by Gallon Drunk

― Ben Dot (1977), Thursday, 18 March 2004 20:17 (twenty-two years ago)

Living Thing - ELO

― Bill E (bill_e), Thursday, 18 March 2004 20:19 (twenty-two years ago)

Doug. E Fresh has a VERY pro-life song called "Abortion" on the Oh my God Album from 1986. The chorus goes "abortion, abortion!" and the song begins with Doug E. saying "the name is this record is....abortion."

― Ljj, Thursday, 18 March 2004 20:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Leonard Cohen sings something like "Kill another foetus / We don't like babies anyway" in "The Future."

― me (you), Thursday, 18 March 2004 21:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Jim Thirwell to thread!

― udu wudu (udu wudu), Thursday, 18 March 2004 21:12 (twenty-two years ago)

S: Digable Planets, "Femme Fetale"

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 18 March 2004 21:16 (twenty-two years ago)

My favorite anti-abortion song is "Diary of an Unborn Child" by Lil Markie

― Kerry (dymaxia), Thursday, 18 March 2004 21:27 (twenty-two years ago)

And it's from a male (fetus) perspective, so it meets your criterion!

― Kerry (dymaxia), Thursday, 18 March 2004 21:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Common "Retrospect for Life"

― brian patrick (brian patrick), Thursday, 18 March 2004 23:50 (twenty-two years ago)

S: Tim McGraw, "Red Rag Top"

― teeny (teeny), Thursday, 18 March 2004 23:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Modest Mouse::3rd Planet is about abortion, right? Or miscarriage, at least.

― minolta (minolta), Friday, 19 March 2004 00:06 (twenty-two years ago)

search and destroy "Brick" - it's a perfectly fine song on its own, but has been forever ruined by its use as slow-dance material for 9th-grade dances.

Apparently I was the only kid who knew what it was about and the 'DJs' were sick bastards.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Friday, 19 March 2004 00:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Carter USM, "Girls Can Keep A Secret"

― kit brash (kit brash), Friday, 19 March 2004 00:40 (twenty-two years ago)

There's a track on "Denim on Ice" which is about abortion, I think it's called "Brumburger" though I could be wrong about the title. It's not just about that, but it does get a mention.

― Rob M (Rob M), Friday, 19 March 2004 10:33 (twenty-two years ago)

'Locust Abortion Technician' by Butthole Surfers

Don't really know if it about abortions though.

― mei (mei), Friday, 19 March 2004 12:25 (twenty-two years ago)

There's a good one on Lee Hazlewood's "Requiem For An Almost Lady", good but a trifle, errrrrrrrrr, odd. Can't remember what song it is exactly - maybe "I'll Live Yesterdays"?

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 19 March 2004 12:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh! That Digable Planets one is great.

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Friday, 19 March 2004 13:15 (twenty-two years ago)

You're Pregnant, So I Kicked You In The Stomach

I THOUGHT YOU WHERE A FAT CHICK
THEN I REALIZED YOU WHERE PREGNANT
I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE FUNNY IF YOUR BABY DIED
SO I KICKED YOU IN THE STOMACH

I KICKED YOU, YOUR BABY'S DEAD
I KICKED YOU, YOUR BABY'S DEAD
I KICKED YOU, YOUR BABY'S DEAD
HA HA HA YOUR BABY'S DEAD

THERE WHERE NO STAIRS TO THROW YOU DOWN
THERE WAS NO ROOF TO THROUGH YOU OFF
THERE WAS NO COAT HANGERS AROUND
SO I KICKED YOU IN THE STOMACH

I KICKED YOU, YOUR BABY'S DEAD
I KICKED YOU, YOUR BABY'S DEAD
I KICKED YOU, YOUR BABY'S DEAD
HA HA HA YOUR BABY'S DEAD

― DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), Friday, 19 March 2004 13:41 (twenty-two years ago)

Who's that by? Sinead O'Connor?

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 19 March 2004 13:44 (twenty-two years ago)

sex pistols- bodies.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Friday, 19 March 2004 13:46 (twenty-two years ago)

is that lyric by anal cunt?

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Friday, 19 March 2004 15:52 (twenty-two years ago)

"Hellbound," by the Breeders, right?

Yup.

― Jeanne Fury (Jeanne Fury), Friday, 19 March 2004 16:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Wow, this thread is going to be sooooo helpful when I put together my Ultimate Abortion Mega Mix cd.

― Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Friday, 19 March 2004 16:41 (twenty-two years ago)

Geto Boys "The Unseen"

― dave q, Friday, 19 March 2004 16:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Someone remembers blackgirls' "Procedure!" That's a great song.

Agnostic Front complains about poor Latino girls getting "free abortions" in "Public Assistance."

― mike a, Friday, 19 March 2004 17:44 (twenty-two years ago)

My girlfriend believes that "The Freshmen" by Verve Pipe is about a girl who kills herself after getting an abortion.

― My name is Kenny (My name is Kenny), Friday, 19 March 2004 17:52 (twenty-two years ago)

"Body" by PiL. And is "Livin' Thing" really about abortion? The lyrics indicate it certainly could be, but I'd probably want to hear independent confirmation before I get depressed.

Livin' Thing Lyrics

Sailin' away on the crest of a wave
It's like magic
Rollin' and ridin' and slippin' & sliding
It's magic

CHORUS
And you, and your sweet desire,
You took me, ohhh higher and higher baby,
It's a livin' thing,
It's a terrible thing to lose
It's a given thing
What a terrible thing to lose.

I'm takin' a dive. (echo)

Making believe this is what you've conceived
From your worst day, I'm takin a dive
Moving in line when you look back in time
Tothe first day, I'm taken I'm taken

And you and your sweet desire,
Don't you do it , don't you do it,
Taking me ohh,higher and higher baby
It's a living thing,
It's a terrible thing to lose,
It's a given thing
What a terrible thing to lose

I'm takin a dive.

Takin' a dive 'cos you can't halt the slide
Floating downstream, I'm takin a dive
So let her go don't start spoiling the show
It's a bad dream, I'm taken , I'm taken

And you and your sweet desire
Don't you do it , don't you do it
Taking me higher and higher baby

It's a livin' thing,
It's a terrible thing to lose
It's a given thing
What a terrible thing to lose.(x2)

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Friday, 19 March 2004 21:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Mudhoney - Fearless Doctor Killers , ........right?

― John 2, Saturday, 20 March 2004 20:45 (twenty-two years ago)

"Rapid City, South Dakota" (Kinky Friedman)

...And all her people treatin’ her just like they never knowed her
Lord, the winter’s passin’ slow in rapid city, south dakota...

― christoff (christoff), Thursday, 1 April 2004 15:55 (twenty-one years ago)

"National Acrobat" by Black Sabbath has a line about an unborn child, though I have no idea what they say about it. And King's X have an anti-choice song, I think, but I forget what it's about. Also, I don't have time to check whether anybody mentioned the one on Kid Rock's *Devil Without a Cause* yet (last song on the album, if I remember right).

― chuck, Thursday, 1 April 2004 16:32 (twenty-one years ago)

I meant I forget what the King's X one is CALLED. (Obviously, it's about being anti-choice, being an anti-choice song and all.)

― chuck, Thursday, 1 April 2004 16:33 (twenty-one years ago)

And wait, isn't "Cotton Eyed Joe" (in its many many versions) about an abortionist? I think Rob Sheffield told me that once. I used to think it was about a whiskey bootlegger, but i guess i was wrong.

― chuck, Thursday, 1 April 2004 16:45 (twenty-one years ago)

I'd like to recite this gem from a House of Pain song that I used to listen to while driving around in high school again:

my girls on the pill, so I can drill, and I don't have to kill, and unborn child, because that's buck wild.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Thursday, 1 April 2004 17:21 (twenty-one years ago)

"Last Caress"

― Sonny A. (Keiko), Thursday, 1 April 2004 17:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Eugene Chadbourne: "Let's Go Back in Time"

― Ernest P. (ernestp), Thursday, 1 April 2004 23:38 (twenty-one years ago)

My mother was certain "Disarm" by the Smashing Pumpkins was about it, back when it was all over the radio. At first I sneered, but then thought about it, the portent's definitely there.

― Dare, Thursday, 1 April 2004 23:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Then again, it makes for a horribly literal interpretation.

― Dare, Thursday, 1 April 2004 23:47 (twenty-one years ago)

From "Meditation" by the Last Emperor:
My style kills more kids than Roe vs. Wade

― Sym (shmuel), Friday, 2 April 2004 04:50 (twenty-one years ago)

eighteen years pass...

Sure to be a hell of a lot more songs down the road...

― Loud guitars shit all over "Bette Davis Eyes" (NYCNative), Tuesday, 3 May 2022 14:31 (three years ago)

I only became aware of this album just now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJkB33JQfe4

"Released in 1993 on Rykodisc. It was released as a benefit album, with proceeds going to support NARAL, the Brooklyn Women's Anti-Rape Exchange, and Women's Health Action and Mobilization."

Chilling to hear the cover of the Beatles' "She Said She Said" in this context, specifically "She said / 'I know what it's like to be dead'"

― birdistheword, Wednesday, 4 May 2022 02:58 (three years ago)

whoa

― Let's disco dance, Hammurabi! (Austin), Wednesday, 4 May 2022 03:04 (three years ago)

the lineup is very ryko, iykwim. does that mean all of those songs are about abortion in this context?

― Let's disco dance, Hammurabi! (Austin), Wednesday, 4 May 2022 03:06 (three years ago)

Dog Faced Hermans - Keep Your Laws/Off My Body

https://genius.com/Dog-faced-hermans-keep-your-laws-off-my-body-lyrics

― o. nate, Wednesday, 4 May 2022 03:20 (three years ago)

xp most of them are (or are related to the causes they benefit), but something like the Tom Waits song that later appeared on Mule Variations seems to be unrelated.

― birdistheword, Wednesday, 4 May 2022 03:40 (three years ago)

Honorary mention to U2 and "I Will Follow", which soundtracks the abortion scene in The Last American Virgin.

― Precious, Grace, Hill & Beard LTD. (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 4 May 2022 03:58 (three years ago)

Arrested Development - Warm Thoughts

― Les hommes de bonbons (cryptosicko), Wednesday, 4 May 2022 14:45 (three years ago)

Surprised no-ones mentioned perhaps the most famous anti-abortion tune of all time, 'Murder she wrote' by Chaka Demus & Pliers.

― droid, Wednesday, 4 May 2022 19:25 (three years ago)

Everlast: "What It's Like"

― Precious, Grace, Hill & Beard LTD. (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 4 May 2022 20:03 (three years ago)

"National Acrobat" by Black Sabbath has a line about an unborn child, though I have no idea what they say about it.

Think this song is specifically about reincarnation.

― Halfway there but for you, Wednesday, 4 May 2022 20:09 (three years ago)

I see I mentioned the Mekons contribution to that comp in... 2004. Blimey.

Eugene Chadbourne: "Let's Go Back in Time"

This is legit one of the most stirring things I've ever heard. I guess I didn't know it quite that far that back.

― Nag! Nag! Nag!, Sunday, 8 May 2022 01:00 (three years ago)

one month passes...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79fFBbJta-c

kristin hersh — "what'll we do with the baby-o" (1998)

― "Why is the voice of reason treated as the unreliable narrator?", asked (Austin), Friday, 24 June 2022 19:53 (three years ago)

Blatz - "Berkeley Is My Baby (And I Wanna Kill It)"

― one time gaffled 'em up (one time), Saturday, 25 June 2022 02:05 (three years ago)

Honorary mention to U2 and "I Will Follow", which soundtracks the abortion scene in The Last American Virgin.

Still amazed this appeared in a Hollywood movie. (NSFW)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9IjOicxGXg

― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, 25 June 2022 02:27 (three years ago)

The opening lyrics to Daniel Johnston's "Fate Will Get Done" are "Time flies when you're having fun/aborted babies are the lucky ones." Haven't heard that song in like 25 years, but that couplet has really stuck with me.

― InternationalWaters, Sunday, 26 June 2022 13:38 (three years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m77qP58nAIw

Organized Konfusion - "Invetro" (1997)

― "Why is the voice of reason treated as the unreliable narrator?", asked (Austin), Saturday, 2 July 2022 05:34 (three years ago)

Surprised no-ones mentioned perhaps the most famous anti-abortion tune of all time, 'Murder she wrote' by Chaka Demus & Pliers.

― droid, Wednesday, 4 May 2022 20:25 (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

This is my favourite song which has a political message that I vehemently disagree with

― paolo, Saturday, 2 July 2022 09:07 (three years ago)

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