Tinder Wants to Know Your Thoughts on Abortion

Tinder—the app that gave a new way to casually bang—added a “pro-choice” badge to users’ profile options on Tuesday. “At Tinder, we unequivocally support the right to choose,” the company said in a statement this week.

Within the app, Tinder is promoting Planned Parenthood and Bansoff.org as well as donating ad space to Kansas Constitutional Freedom, a coalition of reproductive rights advocates working to protect legal abortion in the state.

An app that facilitates casual sex absolutely should facilitate conversations about reproductive health and give its users that information about potential dating partners. If a condom broke, what would you do? How do you feel about bodily autonomy? Are you actively hindering people from exercising their right to abortion in any way? I think the dating pool deserves to know, so they can make informed decisions about who they choose to grab a drink or get naked with.

What’s disappointing, we must note, is that Tinder is owned by a company that is actively thwarting abortion rights. Match Group—the parents company of Tinder, Match, and OKCupid—used its customer revenue to donate $137,000 to the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA). This donation was disclosed first by Judd Legum’s Popular Information. Mississippi’s Republican Attorney General Lynn Fitch, a RAGA member, was a key player in devising legal strategy for Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, the Supreme Court case from last month that overturned Roe v. Wade. Now, RAGA has spent $682,000 in TV ads to oust Wisconsin’s Attorney General Josh Kaul, who supports abortion rights, as well as for attorneys general in Arizona and Michigan.

So, good for Tinder for taking a stand. It’s vital, especially now, to be open about what we all would or wouldn’t do if pregnancy becomes a reality—considering that our reproductive autonomy and options in this country are rapidly dwindling.