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Petrol Girls, 'Baby, I Had An Abortion'

Defiance is built into Petrol Girls' punk fury – often violently, but increasingly as a nuanced, intersectional work in progress. Ren Aldridge has never been one to hold back as a singer or an activist, and proudly sneers on "Baby, I Had An Abortion," an unapologetic party-punk raver about her own experience. Low-end distortion smears the track with an ominous drone, as the rhythm section chugs the momentum forward. Its screamed urgency owes to X-Ray Spex, but the pop-culture signifiers ("Shame! Shame! Shame!" unashamedly lifted from Game of Thrones) are twisted into an electro-punk cheerleader chant à la Le Tigre. Aldridge wrote the song about her experiences in Austria and the U.K., but her lyrics resonate in the United States, too, where a forthcoming Supreme Court ruling could ban or curtail access to abortion for more than 100 million Americans. Her question to those who would claim power over women's bodily autonomy comes in a clever, biting turn of phrase: "Whose life are you pro? / Whose do you want to control?"

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