25 Celebrities Who’ve Spoken Out About Having an Abortion

Reasons for seeking an abortion are varied and personal, but sharing the stories could be even more challenging. According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one in five pregnancies ends in abortion. Hence, rather than stigmatizing abortion, it is important to consider it as basic health care and a human right. Many celebrities have shared their abortion stories to raise awareness and support for abortion rights. These celebrities have in a way motivated the common people to pursue their lives the way they want. Let us have a look at 25 celebrities who have spoken about their abortion stories.

Uma Thurman, Actress

The actress shared her experience of being impregnated by an old man when she was a teenager. She wrote a personal essay for The Washington Post, wherein she stated that choosing not to keep the early pregnancy allowed her to grow up and become the mother she always wanted to be.

Halsey, Singer

Halsey penned an open letter that was published in Vogue on July 1, 2022, wherein she mentioned that abortion saved her life. She had a son with her partner Alev Aydin in July 2021 after she had faced an abortion. Halsey in her open letter described how she had faced three miscarriages before her 24th birthday and how one of her miscarriages required abortion as an aftercare because her body could not terminate the pregnancy on its own and she was at a risk to go into sepsis.

Paris Hilton, Socialite and Actor

Paris Hilton spoke about her decision to terminate a pregnancy in her early 20s. She highlighted her abortion experience while discussing the importance of reproductive rights and recalled how she went for an abortion as she wasn't ready for a baby. Hilton felt obliged to share her story and use her celebrity status to express about the Supreme Court's decision to repeal the Roe v Wade case about the constitutional right to abortion.

Nicki Minaj, Rapper

Nicki Minaj in her interview with Rolling Stone in 2014 revealed how she felt like she was going to die when she discovered that she was pregnant as a teenager. She claimed it to be one the hardest things she had ever gone through and also highlighted how she wasn't ready for the baby as she didn't have anything to offer to a child.

Laura Prepon, Actress

Prepon and her husband Ben Foster decided to go for an abortion after discovering that the fetus' brain and bones were not developing. She narrated how this experience was physically and mentally challenging for her but with the support of her friends and husband, she conceived again and had a baby boy in 2020. Prepon took to Instagram to share her story and opened up about how she made a choice to terminate her second pregnancy in the second trimester when she came to know that keeping the fetus was risky.

Rita Moreno, Actress

This 90-year-old actress spoke to Variety magazine about her abortion experience when she got pregnant with then-boyfriend Marlon Brando's baby. She opened up about how abortion was illegal at a young age, how Brando found a doctor through some of his friends and they had to pay $500. However, Marlon suffered bleeding and had to be taken to a hospital where the doctors told her that it was a disturbed pregnancy. The earlier doctor didn't do it right and she could have died.

Cheryl Burke, Actress

The Dancing with the Stars pro revealed how she went for an abortion at 18. She took to TikTok and said that even though she was practising safe sex, she got pregnant and had to get an abortion when she was two weeks pregnant. She highlighted how she doesn't regret her decision and claimed the decision of making abortion illegal was insanity.

Keke Palmer, Actress

Palmer took to Twitter and wrote about her abortion. She thought it was not a good time to raise a child and so went for an abortion. She supported the idea of making individual choices and said that it is not a betrayal of your faith as God knows your heart and journey. She also added #youknowme which was started by actress Busy Philipps to motivate other women to share their abortion stories.

Busy Philipps, Actress

Busy Philipps created a #youknowme hashtag on Twitter to encourage others to share their abortion stories so that it can bring awareness about abortion. She wrote her story and revealed how she was not in a financial as well as emotional state to raise a child and went for an abortion. She also highlighted that the decision was her choice for her body.

Whoopi Goldberg, Comedian

Goldberg discovered that she was pregnant when she was 14 as she didn't get her period. She panicked and drank strange concoctions which made her ill. She was too afraid to explain to anybody what she was going through and her experience highlighted the effect of unsafe abortion.

Chelsea Handler, Comedian and Provocateur

Handler wrote about two abortions that she had when she was 16. He recalled her experience and thought process in a personal essay which she wrote for Playboy magazine. She narrated how she thought she could raise a child, but later on, realized the nuances and went for planned parenthood with the help of her parents.

Milla Jovovich, Actor and Model

The actress took to Instagram in May 2019 and shared her abortion experience in response to the Georgia bill which states that no abortion can be performed if an unborn baby has a detectable heartbeat. Jovovich opened up about her emergency abortion in 2017 when she went into pre-term labor and went through one of the most horrific experiences. She took time off her career and isolated herself for months. She wrote in her post that no woman wants to go through an abortion but we have to fight to ensure the rights are preserved if we need to.

Chrissy Teigen, Model

Teigen had to abort her baby in 2020 and labelled it as a life-saving abortion. She said that it was an abortion to save her life for a baby that had no survival chance. She felt frustrated and took over a year to understand that she had an abortion as she had earlier told the media that it was a miscarriage.

Jennifer Grey, Actress

Grey spoke to the Los Angeles Times in 2022 and said that abortion has been a grave decision for her. She defined it as something that stays with a woman before admitting it was the correct decision. Grey also explained how she was careful with birth control as a young adult and making the decision to abort her child took a toll on her.

Hilarie Burton, Actress

Burton had struggled with infertility and losing multiple pregnancies before her daughter was born and felt nothing less than a traumatic journey. However, having an abortion after her fetus died gave her uterus a chance to heal and carry future pregnancies. She believes that the Roe V Wade case protected her right as a woman to have a miscarriage without any scrutiny.

Ginger Zee, Meteorologist

Zee spoke about the mental health challenges faced after getting an abortion in her memoir. She recalls how shame and hormonal drop-off started after the abortion and felt isolated in the darkest days of her life. She opened up about her story so as to help others and with the hope to reduce the stigma around women about abortion.

Ashley Judd, Actress

Judd revealed how one of her three rapes had resulted in the conception and how she feels grateful to have had the option of abortion. At the 2019 Women in the World Summit, Judd said that democracy starts with our skin and one should not regulate what one chooses to do with the insides.

Ireland Baldwin, Model

Baldwin in her TikTok video which she posted on June 26, 2022, talked about how she got pregnant unexpectedly with her then-boyfriend who had made it clear that he was not interested in children or marriage. She chose to get an abortion because she didn't want to welcome a child in the world who would be born between two people who hated each other. She stressed how she chose herself as it was her life and her choice.

Amanda de Cadenet, Photographer

de Cadenet was six weeks pregnant when she suffered an incomplete miscarriage on a flight from Los Angeles to New York City. She was taken in a wheelchair to the hospital directly from the plane and her doctor as well as husband prioritized her safety and went ahead with the abortion.

Jemima Kirke, Artist

Kirke got pregnant in college in 2007 with her then-boyfriend and wasn't sure if she wanted to spend her entire life with him. She went for a Planned Parenthood and had an abortion in support of the ‘Draw The Line’ campaign run by the Centre for Reproductive Rights. She has been vocal about her stories so that she can motivate other women for speaking about reproductive issues freely.

Hannah Gadsby, Comedian

Gadsby spoke about her abortion which she chose to undergo after she was raped brutally. She has spoken about how it would be unfair for her to raise a child when she felt vulnerable. Additionally, she highlighted that facilities should be made available for women if they are expected to not have abortions.

Jameela Jamil, Actress

Jamil took on her Instagram and wrote how she got pregnant even after using two different types of contraception and had to go for an abortion eight weeks later. She agreed that abortion was hard on her but she has no regret for the same as she believes that it saved her life.

Lauren Conrad, Fashion Designer

Conrad talked about ectopic pregnancy which she had to go through a few years ago when she wanted to start a family. These pregnancies are life-threatening for the person as the fetus keeps growing and rupture the fallopian tubes. She had to abort her fetus and stated that she hopes to see a day when every woman can have proper access to healthcare and freedom, she deserves to decide what happens with her body.

Debbie Reynolds, Actor and Singer

Debbie Reynolds spoke about two abortions she underwent in the 1960s. At that time abortions were illegal and the doctors had planned to make her carry the fetus. However, as her condition became life-threatening, the doctors decided to perform an abortion.

Stevie Nicks, Musician

Nicks had to terminate her pregnancy in 1979 when her band Fleetwood Mac was at peak popularity and was about to go on a world tour. She couldn't have managed to work hard as was essential for her at that time if she had not aborted her baby. Nicks didn't have a child later on but does not regret the decision she made.

Conclusion

The stories and experiences of these notable women give us hope that if they can survive abortion, we can do it as well. It is definitely challenging to share our personal medical history with the world, but when these brave hearts do, it means a lot and becomes a guiding light for others. Let us take inspiration from these celebrities and treat abortion as a medical decision instead of making it a controversial issue.