A recent column in National Review lamented the ongoing abortion advocacy of rock star Stevie Nicks.
Nicks, the former lead singer for Fleetwood Mac, released the pro-choice song “The Lighthouse” in 2024 in the wake of the Supreme Court’s historic Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. In an interview with CBS last year, she talked about having an abortion in 1979, claiming that a baby and the burgeoning musical success of Fleetwood Mac were not compatible.
In her article, “You Can Go Another Way: Stevie Nicks and the Enduring Immiseration of Abortion,” Kathryn Jean Lopez calls out Nicks as misguided.
Lopez wrote the column after portions of a 2024 CBS News interview were recently used on social media to promote the agenda of the Center for Reproductive Rights. The organization was “apparently unaware that Nicks does sound miserable about [her past abortion],” commented Lopez.
During the CBS interview, Nicks explained to Traci Smith that she became pregnant through a relationship with Don Henley of the Eagles.
“This can’t be happening,” recalled Nicks of her thoughts at that time. “Fleetwood Mac is three years in and it’s big. And we’re going into our third album. I was like, ‘Oh, no, no, no, no.’”
“It would have destroyed Fleetwood Mac if you had a baby?” asked Smith.
“Absolutely,” replied Nicks.
In addition to disrupting the band’s touring schedule, she said having the baby with Henley would have caused friction with former boyfriend Lindsey Buckingham, the lead guitarist, vocalist, and one of the primary songwriters for Fleetwood Mac.
“It would have been a nightmare scenario for me to live through,” she said.
Although her 2024 “Lighthouse” song never mentions pregnancy or abortion, many listeners connect it to Nicks’ past, especially considering lyrics like “Don’t let them take your power,” “I made my choices in the storm,” and “I won’t apologize for surviving.”
“This song should not be censored,” Nicks told CBS. “It should go out into the world and do what it’s going to do. Maybe change some minds.”
“The song is about fighting for reproductive rights…And ultimately, the choice was mine. If people want to be mad at me…I don’t care. Had I made the other choice? Had I gone the other way I’d have been a great mom. [But] I went this way, and I’ve done great.”
In her article for National Review, Lopez contrasts Nicks’ unapologetic stance with that of social activist Dorothy Day, who had an abortion before converting to Catholicism in 1927. Day reflected on her abortion with humility and sorrow even decades later, emphasizing the quiet mercy of forgiveness rather than public self-justification.
Even with her sober assessment of Nicks, however, Lopez ultimately turns toward hope rather than despair.
“I pray that women who have seen the post from the Steve Nicks’ interview know that there are resources for healing after abortion. The abortion could have been yesterday; it could have been 60 years ago,” she wrote. “Some of the most beautiful and heart-wrenching sights I have seen are in a Sisters of Life chapel after a post-abortion healing retreat…”
Similarly, thousands of women have found restoration through Care Net’s resource, Forgiven and Set Free: A Bible Study for Women Seeking Healing After Abortion. The study, written in 1986 by Linda Cochrane and updated in 2022 by Jill Marquis, enables women to bring their emotional scars out of the dark past and find forgiveness and grace.
“The Stevie Nicks interview is such a devastating window into our culture’s utter confusion about life and death and sex and men and women,” wrote Lopez.
Let it also serve as a clarion call to Pro Abundant Life people everywhere to offer Christ’s compassion and hope to those who have experienced abortion and those navigating pregnancy decisions.