Harry Styles Tells Howard Stern There Should Be ‘Backlash’ Over Attacks on Civil Rights

Harry Styles thinks you should be mad.

In a Wednesday morning interview on The Howard Stern Show, Styles said the United States appeared to be going “backwards” on crucial issues like abortion access and LGBTQ rights.

“I think it’s quite scary to see how far backwards we’re going in a lot of ways,” the Grammy-winning musician said. “There should be backlash and uproar for these things.”

Styles had stopped by Stern’s studio as part of his promotion for his upcoming Love on Tour tour. Stern asked if Styles thought there is “some weird s**t going down in this country right now” where rights like gay marriage and abortion access are at risk. “I could see a lot of this shit disappearing, some of the freedoms people have been enjoying,” Stern said.

“There’s a lot of people who I think are taking the right steps to try and make positive things happening [sic], and I think obviously people who don’t like that are kind of clawing to grapple back any ground that they feel like they’ve lost, which never belonged to them in the first place,” Styles replied.

“I just don’t think anyone should be able to make decisions about anyone else’s body. It doesn’t really make any sense,” he continued.

Their conversation comes amid a backlash to hard-fought civil rights progress. A leaked draft decision indicates that the Supreme Court is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, ending nearly 50 years of access to safe, legal abortion in the U.S. State legislatures around the country are also enacting laws that prevent trans youth from seeking gender-affirming care or playing on sports teams that align with their gender. They’re also instituting bans on how the history of race and racism can be taught in schools, while school districts are issuing bans on books that discuss race, gender, sex or sexuality.

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