Swedish singer Zara Larsson is going viral for a TikTok comment she left on a fan’s video that many say was insensitive.
The video in question came from one of Zara’s recent shows during her performance of "Midnight Sun." The fan, @honeyhazelwood, tagged Zara and wrote in the text overlay, "i didn’t know i was pregnant here but at least my baby got to hear midnight sun before I aborted it."
The fan video that caught Zara Larsson's attention
Celebrities are constantly tagged in social media posts and videos, so it was reasonable for @honeyhazelwood to assume that the singer wouldn’t see her video.
Zara, however, noticed and commented, "I killed the performance and then you killed it after the performance purrrrrr."
The joke was met with divisive reactions from people on both sides of the pro-choice and pro-life stances on abortion, and a debate ended up being waged under Zara's comment from people trying to define a baby versus a fetus and whether aborting a fetus is considered "murder."
"Abortion is healthcare": Zara explains her stance
Zara posted a follow-up video to explain the reason behind her joke, calling out critics who accused her of making light of abortion. The pop star explained that she wasn’t going to bother arguing with people who were against abortions because of fundamental differences in viewpoints.
Then the singer directed her attention to pro-choice people who were calling her out for being insensitive. "I actually wanna have a little one-on-one with the people who […] were like, this is not something to joke about. I am so pro-choice. I am as pro-choice as the next person, but abortion is a very serious topic, and I just want to know why that is."
She went on, "Why do you feel like abortion is only okay when it's a very hard decision, when it's something that women have to struggle with going through, when it's emotionally or physically painful?"
Zara questioned why it couldn’t be something to be celebrated as the person’s right to choose for their own body, saying, "Now riddle me that."
The singer went on to say that she did believe that there should be more sex education in school to avoid the need for abortion in the first place. She added that access to birth control and condoms was also important, but that it was "human nature" to want to have sex, and there was nothing wrong with that.
"But also, that doesn't mean that you have to have a baby because of it," she said.
Zara ended by saying that she jokes about abortion because "it doesn’t have to be taboo."
"So let's just make more jokes," she said. "Abortion is healthcare. What can I say? And it's not better because women have to suffer. Mwah!"
@venusjmi shared the video on X and tweeted, "Zara you’re 100% right." They added, "'If you’re pro-choice you have to be pro-choice always' absolutelyyyyy. I just love her so much. She’s right about making abortion less of a taboo by simply talking about it casually & jokingly if we want."
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