In an op-ed condemning a pro-life law in Texas as a “human rights crisis for American women,” actress Uma Thurman reveals she once had an abortion, calling it her “darkest secret.”
Thurman admits in the op-ed that she wanted to keep her child, though she felt abortion was her only option after speaking with her family. The decision to have an abortion and kill the baby left her heartbroken and still causes her pain today, she added.
“I started my acting career at 15, working in an environment where I was often the only kid in the room. In my late teens, I was accidentally impregnated by a much older man,” the “Kill Bill” actress detailed. “I was living out of a suitcase in Europe, far from my family, and about to start a job. I struggled to figure out what to do. I wanted to keep the baby, but how?”
“I telephoned home. My mother was gravely ill in the hospital. My father went to her bedside to discuss my options. We had never spoken about sex before; this was the first time, and it was terrible for all of us,” Thurman continued. “They asked me about the status of my relationship — it was not viable — and warned me how difficult it would be to raise a baby as a teen on my own. My childish fantasy of motherhood was soundly corrected as I weighed answers to their very precise questions. I was just starting out in my career and didn’t have the means to provide a stable home, even for myself. We decided as a family that I couldn’t go through with the pregnancy, and agreed that termination was the right choice. My heart was broken nonetheless.”
“There is so much pain in this story. It has been my darkest secret until now,” Thurman wrote, before speaking glowingly of the children she did keep.
The actress admits the abortion caused her “anguish” “that saddens me even now” but added that the abortion allowed her “the path to the life full of joy and love that I have experienced.”
“Choosing not to keep that early pregnancy allowed me to grow up and become the mother I wanted and needed to be,” Thurman coldly asserts.
The op-ed closed with Thurman condemning Texas pro-life legislation, which bans abortion after the unborn’s heartbeat is detectable, which is around six weeks, calling it “another discriminatory tool against those who are economically disadvantaged, and often, indeed, against their partners.”
Last year, actress Michelle Williams thanked abortion for her Golden Globe win while she was visibly pregnant. The Daily Wire reported at the time:
“I’m grateful for the acknowledgment of the choices I’m made, and I’m also grateful to have lived at a moment in our society where choice exists, because, as women and as girls, things can happen to our bodies that are not our choice,” Williams said, clutching her award.
“I wouldn’t have been able to do this without employing a woman’s right to choose, to choose when to have my children and with whom,” Williams added, announcing that she had an abortion early in her career, presumably as she was an up-and-coming actress (though she never actually said the word, “abortion”).
“Now, I know my choices might look different than yours, but thank God, or whomever you pray to, that we live in a country founded on the principle that I am free to live by my faith and you are free to live by yours,” she continued. “So, women, 18 to 118, when it is time to vote, please do so in your own self interest. It’s what men have been doing for years.”
Related: Pregnant Michelle Williams Thanks Abortion For Her Golden Globe Win