People Are Calling out Gwen Stefani for Backing a Prayer App With Anti-Abortion Messages

It’s never been a secret that singer Gwen Stefani is a devout Catholic. She was raised in a Catholic household and often talks about the role religion plays in her life. But after she revealed she had partnered with the pay-to-pray app Hallow, an app that lets users follow guided prayers on select topics, some people took issue.

Once you peel back the layers behind the Hallow app, including its cost and its investors, it starts to make sense why Gwen’s partnership is rubbing people the wrong way. Here’s why people are pretty upset about it.

One reason people are taking issue with Gwen Stefani partnering with the Catholic prayer app Hallow is that JD Vance invested in it. According to his 2022 disclosures, he held two shares of Hallow, each worth between $1,001 and $15,000, per The Independent.

For anyone who isn’t pro-MAGA, or who was offended when he referred to women without kids as “childless cat ladies,” these are pretty solid reasons to be unhappy about Gwen aligning herself with a company that Vance helped build. That’s strike one.

Strike two is the type of content the app promotes. Hallow features prayers that boost anti-abortion messaging, including one from Novena for Life titled “For an End to Abortion.”

TikToker @mattxiv also showed a look at one specific anti-abortion prayer that begins:

“Jesus, we pray for every woman who is considering abortion, and in a special way for those who are pregnant from acts of rape or incest. May every woman know the goodness, gift, and beauty of her own life, and so be able to receive the gift of her child’s life.”

Of course, every woman facing an abortion decision deserves support as she’s navigating something life-changing. But suggesting that women who became pregnant through rape or incest should simply “receive the gift” of a child is exactly what has people heated. Many feel that asking a survivor to go through with a pregnancy created through violence is severely traumatic and could cause even more harm.

Another issue people have with the Hallow app, and Gwen’s partnership with it, is the idea that she’s encouraging people to pay to pray. According to its website, Hallow costs $69.99 a year (about $6 per month when billed annually) or $10.99 if you pay month to month. If you want to upgrade to the Friends and Family plan, it’s $119.99 a year and covers up to six people.

Maybe Gwen believes that if someone pays for a prayer app, they’ll be more committed to practicing or taking their faith seriously. It’s not entirely clear. What is, though, is that prayer doesn’t cost a penny, and neither does going to church.

So asking people to spend their hard-earned money just to pray feels wild to some. Sure, the app offers guided prayer, which might be helpful for people who don’t know where to start, but overall, people are quite displeased with Gwen’s decision to partner with a Vance-backed religious app.