“You get to run the world in your special way,” AniDiFranco sings to men in power in “Play God,” from her latest album. “You get much more, much more than your say. Government, religion—it’s all just patriarchy. I must insist you leave this one thing to me.”
That song has taken on new resonance in the wake of anti-abortion laws restricting access and endangering women’s lives across the country—passed, by and large, by exclusively or majority-male legislatures. And this week, a previously unreleased clip of DiFranco and her daughter, Petah, performing the song was released on YouTube—pointing viewers to local abortion organizations and encouraging them to mobilize for reproductive justice.
DiFranco and her daughter make a powerful and now more urgent declaration, time and time again, by way of the song’s chorus. “I feel I’ve earned my right to choose,” they sing. “You don’t get to play God, man. I do.”
