The overturning of Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022 was a cause for celebration for pro-lifers across the country who’ve been fighting for the rights of the unborn for close to 50 years. But the historic Supreme Court decision also caused pro-abortion activists to ramp up their rhetoric, making a permanent move from the “safe, legal, and rare” slogan into a full-blown “shout your abortion” landscape.
And no one is shouting louder than celebrities. Recording artists, Academy Award-winning leading ladies, reality stars, comedians, and all other versions of famous women have been sharing their abortion stories for years. The Dobbs decision has caused them to increase their efforts, however, to radicalize fans to fight for the right to abortion. Celebrities are glorifying abortion and insisting they wouldn’t be rich and famous without killing their unborn children.
Conversations about abortion began before the ruling became official when a draft opinion got leaked and sparked outrage across the Hollywood community. The liberal hosts of “The View” were furious about it, including moderator Whoopi Goldberg, who discussed having an abortion at 14, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“It is a hard, awful decision that people make,” Goldberg said during the May 5 episode. “If you don’t have the wherewithal to understand that, to start the conversation with, ‘I know how hard this must be for you,’ if you’re starting it by telling me I’m going to burn in hell, then you’re not looking out for me as a human being, whether I subscribe to your religion or not, and that is not OK.”
Goldberg took heat for saying, “my doctor, and myself and my child — that’s who makes the decision.” Some followers found it strange that the child would make the choice to die.
“Women, when they decide something is not right for them, they’re going to take it into their own hands,” the 66-year-old comedian continued. “We got tired of tripping over [other] women in public bathrooms who were giving themselves abortions because there was nowhere safe, nowhere clean, nowhere to go.”
Another voice advocating loudly for abortion is comedian and late-night host Chelsea Handler. The 47-year-old podcast host has admitted that she has had two abortions and regrets nothing.
“I’m speaking from experience on all of this as someone who had three abortions in high school, and if that sounds too extreme, let’s pretend I had two,” she said during a monologue just after the Supreme Court decision was handed down.
“Because here’s the thing: this planet is a much safer place without me polluting it with my children,” Handler continued. “I’m responsible enough to know that we don’t need any more pothead Molly-loving alcoholics running around topless. I get that.”
In a 2016 essay in Playboy, Handler wrote: “Of course, the idea that I would have a child and raise it by myself at that age when I couldn’t even find my way home at night, was ridiculous. My parents recognized that, so they acted like parents for one of the very first times in my life and took me to Planned Parenthood,” she shared. “And when it was over, I was relieved in every possible way.”
“Getting unintentionally pregnant more than once is irresponsible, but it’s still necessary to make a thoughtful decision,” she continued. “We all make mistakes all the time. I happened to f*** up twice at the age of 16. I’m grateful that I came to my senses and was able to get an abortion legally without risking my health or bankrupting myself or my family.”
Another example of a celebrity “shouting” their abortion is actress Alyssa Milano, who has become an outspoken political activist. The 49-year-old “Who’s the Boss?” star said she had two abortions in 1993 after becoming pregnant while using birth control.
“I chose. It was my choice, and it was absolutely the right choice for me,” she continued. “It was not an easy choice. It was not something I wanted, but it was something that I needed. Like most health care is,” she said, per THR.
Milano argues that her life would be less enjoyable if she hadn’t killed those unborn children.
“My life would be completely lacking all its great joys. I would never have been free to be myself and that’s what this fight is about: freedom,” she insists. “Freedom from oppression, freedom for women to have the audacity to be equally sexual beings as men; freedom for women to live the life they were meant to have, not just the life that is thrust upon them by a pregnancy.”
While some celebrities claim to have no regrets about their abortions, others feel guilt and sorrow thinking about the experience while simultaneously insisting it was worth it.
Golden Globe winner Uma Thurman said in a Washington Post essay, “[The abortion] caused me anguish then and that saddens me even now, but it was the path to the life full of joy and love that I have experienced,” Thurman, now a mom of three, wrote. “Choosing not to keep that early pregnancy allowed me to grow up and become the mother I wanted and needed to be.”
“Dancing With the Stars” pro Cheryl Burke had a similarly contradictory message. She said the experience “weighs heavy in my heart.”
“I would be a mother,” the dancer said. “And I wouldn’t have been a great mother and I definitely wouldn’t be sitting here with you today.”
But Burke insisted she has “no regrets.”
“I was two weeks pregnant when I got an abortion and I remember rolling up to Planned Parenthood with picketers holding anti-abortion signs and that alone was traumatic,” she said, per THR. “On top of it all, the whole process is traumatic, and the fact that now you’re making it illegal for us women to make this decision about our own bodies is absolutely insanity.”
Similarly, “Orange is the New Black” actress Laura Prepon said having a second trimester abortion “was one of the worst days” of her life.
“The devastating truth is that we found out the fetus would not survive to full term and that my life was at risk as well,” she said. “At the time — I had the choice.”
Now, there are even celebrities who think they had an abortion when they didn’t. In a strange twist most pro-life advocates didn’t see coming, the Hollywood community has started conflating abortion with miscarriage and extreme complications, including ectopic pregnancy.
The Daily Wire published an article explaining the myths surrounding the Dobbs decision when it comes to what qualifies as abortion.One example is singer Halsey, who claims she had an abortion because she had a procedure after having a miscarriage.
“One of my miscarriages required ‘aftercare,’ a gentle way of saying that I would need an abortion, because my body could not terminate the pregnancy completely on its own and I would risk going into sepsis without medical intervention,” she said. “During this procedure, I cried. I was afraid for myself and I was helpless. I was desperate to end the pregnancy that was threatening my life,” Halsey explained in a Vogue essay, per The Daily Wire.
“How funny that while my own heart would amount to nothing more than a series of involuntary movements on an operating table, a beating heart in my womb could mean I couldn’t consent to saving my own life,” the singer continued.
She’s not the only one mistaking miscarriage for abortion. “One Tree Hill” actress Hilarie Burton also believes she had an abortion post-miscarriage.
“This is my child. My beloved. My daughter,” Burton wrote in the caption of a photo of her daughter George Virginia on June 28.
“It is no secret I struggled with infertility. Losing multiple pregnancies before her was traumatic. But female bodies are all different and unpredictable,” she continued. “Having an abortion after my fetus died allowed for my uterus to heal in a way that made it healthy enough to carry future pregnancies. It doesn’t matter if you use the term D&C. The official word on the hospital paperwork is abortion. That’s what it was.”
“Your miscarriage will make you a murder suspect,” Burton claims. “So f*** you very much to the Supreme Court. And f*** you to the ignorant right-wing extremists who want my daughter to have fewer rights than what I was born with.”
Even Hollywood stars who never had abortions believe the procedure should be legal. Actress, Lena Dunham has even famously said she’d never had an abortion but wishes she had. Then there are the dozens who signed an open letter condemning the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus, Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, Megan Thee Stallion, Demi Lovato, Angel Olsen, Phoebe Bridgers, Meghan Trainor, Hailey Bieber, Camila Mendes, Lili Reinhart, Kendall Jenner, and many others signed their name to the Bans Off Our Bodies ad campaign, which ran after the draft leak, per Billboard.
It said, “The Supreme Court is planning to overturn Roe v. Wade, taking away the constitutional right to abortion. Our power to plan our own futures and control our own bodies depends on our ability to access sexual and reproductive health care, including abortion.”
“We are Artists. Creators. Storytellers. We are the new generation stepping into our power. Now we are being robbed of our power. WE WILL NOT GO BACK — AND WE WILL NOT BACK DOWN.”
The abortion debate will no doubt continue in the coming months, with celebrities standing firm for their right to seek fame, fortune, and career advancement at the expense of their unborn children’s lives.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.