Martha Reeves Picked An Unfortunate Time To Perform For The Alabama House Of Representatives

Xavi Torrent/Redferns

Martha Reeves Picked An Unfortunate Time To Perform For The Alabama House Of Representatives

Xavi Torrent/Redferns

“All we need is music, sweet music.” Motown legend Martha Reeves, longtime leader of Martha And The Vandellas, sang that song on her group’s immortal 1964 hit “Dancing In The Street.” That’s a great line! It’s also not actually true! We also need things like food and shelter, and many of us need basic reproductive freedoms. Yesterday morning, Reeves sang that very same line to a room full of people who are working hard to end those freedoms.

Last week, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed a new law that will ban almost all abortions in Alabama. Abortions will even be prohibited in cases of rape and incest. Doctors who perform abortions could face up to 99 years in prison. It’s the most restrictive abortion law in the United States. The law seems expressly designed to lead to a Supreme Court battle, one that could lead to the overturning of Roe Vs. Wade, now that the Supreme Court is dominated by hardline conservatives.

Yesterday morning, Martha Reeves sang for the Alabama House Of Representatives, the very same body that just passed that law and sent it to Ivey’s desk. As Billboard reports, Reeves, a native of the Alabama town of Eufaula, was back in her home state to accept the Distinguished Artists Award from the Alabama State Council On The Arts. While she was there, Reeves sang the Lord’s Prayer and, upon request, gave an impromptu a cappella performance of “Dancing In The Streets.” The members of the Alabama House Of Representatives got up to dance along. Here, look at these ghouls:

That very same morning, as the Hill reports, the Alabama House passed a new law that will send doctors to prison for 20 years if they don’t attempt to save the lives of babies born after attempted abortions. (Late-term abortions were already illegal in the state, so it’s pure grandstanding, but that’s what these people are about.)

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