With all the political rhetoric and public debate about abortion after the Supreme Court's decision on Friday to overturn Roe v. Wade, it can be all too easy to lose sight of some of the basic facts about abortion. For example, a legal abortion is incredibly safe (safer even than pregnancy), most Americans support abortion rights, and abortion is fairly common. However, despite some evidence that suggests that one in four American women will have an abortion by the time they are 45, talking openly about personal experiences with abortion is still much too rare.
Every woman should have a right to privacy and to make the medical and personal choices that are best for her, so we don't think anyone is obligated to share their own abortion experience. That being said, there is something really brave about celebrities with powerful platforms who speak out about what abortion has meant to them. This is especially true in the digital age, when there is always someone waiting in the comments section to call someone a baby killer or a slut, as though abortion isn't something that has happened in every era and in every culture.
In the wake of Roe being overturned, we want to shout out 24 celebrities who have bravely spoken out about their abortions.
Meadow Walker
Meadow Walker, model and daughter of late actor Paul Walker, recently revealed that she had an abortion in 2020. She noted that the experience was "very private and personal — the way it should be," and something that helped her become the "healthy and happy" person she is today.
Nicki Minaj
In 2014, rapper Nicki Minaj revealed to Rolling Stone magazine that she had an abortion when she was in high school. She is an example of the complex feelings some women have about the experience, calling it "the hardest thing" she'd ever gone through but a choice she felt she had to make because she wasn't ready to be a mom. "I didn't have anything to offer a child," she said.
Uma Thurman
Oscar-winning actress Uma Thurman shared her experience with abortion in 2021 in response to the state of Texas issuing incredibly restrictive laws to limit the procedure. In an essay for the Washington Post, she wrote that her story started when she was in her late teens and was "accidentally impregnated by a much older man." Though she at first wanted to continue the pregnancy, she realized she was too young to become a mother.
Decades later, she still reflects on that choice: "It has been my darkest secret until now. I am 51, and I am sharing it with you from the home where I have raised my three children, who are my pride and joy. My life has been extraordinary, at times filled with heartbreak, challenge, loss and fear, but also marked by courage and compassion," she wrote. "I conceived my beautiful, magical children with men I loved and trusted enough to dare to bring a child into this world. I have no regrets for the path I have traveled."
Keke Palmer
Actress and singer Keke Palmer was also inspired to speak out after restrictive abortion laws were passed. In 2019, she tweeted that she had an abortion due to not being in the right place in her life at the time. "I was worried about my career responsibilities and afraid that I could not exist as both a career woman and mother," she explained.
Busy Philipps
Busy Philipps (who is so good in the show Girls 5eva) has been a vocal abortion rights supporter for years. Her activism was inspired in part by her own abortion as a teenager. She's shared that she doesn't have any shame about the experience. "It's not brave for me to say I had an abortion at 15 because it's a medical thing — a thing, a choice that I made — and I don't regret it at all."
Jemima Kirke
Girls star Jemima Kirke is the proud mother of two kids and is someone who believes that abortion shouldn't be a dirty secret. As she puts it: "I've always felt that reproductive issues should be something that women especially should be able to talk about freely, especially amongst each other. I still see shame and embarrassment around terminating pregnancies, getting pregnant, so I have always been open about my stories, always shared them, especially with other women."
Jemima had an abortion while in college. "I wasn't sure that I wanted to be attached to this person for the rest of my life," she explained. "My life was just not conducive to raising a happy, healthy child. I just didn't feel it was fair. So I decided to get an abortion."
Milla Jovovich
Actress and model Milla Jovovich experienced the heartbreak of having to undergo an abortion at four and a half months pregnant after she went into extreme preterm labor. She wrote about the experience in a vulnerable Instagram post.
"It was one of the most horrific experiences. I still have nightmares about it. I was alone and helpless," she wrote. "When I think about the fact that women might have to face abortions in even worse conditions than I did because of new laws, my stomach turns. I spiraled into one of the worst depressions of my life and had to work extremely hard to find my way out."
Lil' Kim
Rapper Lil' Kim said that the pregnancy that resulted from her rumored affair with Biggie Smalls and her subsequent abortion inspired her song "Hold On." "I talk about the pain of being pregnant and having an abortion. I talk about the things that women have gone through that they don't think I've gone through," she told the Washington Post in 2000.
Susan Sarandon
Susan Sarandon's abortion story is one that reflects the fact that life can be messy sometimes and that a mess is a hard thing to bring a child into. "I had an abortion in my 20s," she revealed to The Guardian in 2006. "My first and only marriage was falling apart. I had an affair with an insane guy and I knew having a kid with him wasn't the right thing."
Rita Moreno
At 90 years old, Rita Moreno is beyond iconic. She's had an epic career and and an epic life — one that included a pregnancy by Marlon Brando that ended with an illegal abortion that could have killed her. She recounted her experience in her 2011 memoir.
"Marlon took me to the hospital. I had what they told me was a 'disturbed pregnancy.' The doctor didn't do anything really, except make me bleed," she wrote. "In other words, he didn't do it right. I didn't know it then, but I could have died. What a mess. What a dreadful mess."
Cheryl Burke
Cheryl Burke was 18 when she needed an abortion, and she faced what far too many women seeking this basic health care service experience: hostile protestors. She described her experience in a recent TikTok video.
"I was practicing safe sex. I was using protection and I was on birth control and s— happens," she said. "I was two weeks pregnant when I got an abortion, and I remember rolling up to Planned Parenthood with picketers holding antiabortion signs and that alone was traumatic. But, 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 insanity."
Whoopi Goldberg
It's hard not to feel heartbroken for the terrifying experience that Whoopi Goldberg had when she found herself pregnant at only 14 years old and tried to give herself an abortion. She described it in a 1991 book called The Choices We Made. "I talked to nobody. I panicked. I was more afraid of having to explain to anybody what was wrong than of going to the park with a hanger, which is what I did."
Stories like hers are why access to safe and legal abortion is so important.
Chelsea Handler
Chelsea Handler has been open about the fact that she had two abortions, both when she was 16 years old. Her parents were supportive and took her to the procedures. "I felt parented, ironically, while I was getting an abortion. And when it was over, I was relieved in every possible way," she told Playboy in 2016.
Laura Prepon
There are lots of reasons for wanting an abortion, and one of them is when a fetus isn't viable and continuing the pregnancy puts the life of the mother at risk. This was the case for actress Laura Prepon, who shared her story in a recent Instagram post.
"One of the worst days of my life was when I made the choice to terminate a pregnancy in the second trimester. 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. At the time, I had the choice," she wrote.
"Everyone has their own story for seeking out this medical procedure, and I empathize with anyone who's been faced with this impossible decision. I am praying for all of us, that we can get through this challenging time and regain agency over our own bodies."
Hilarie Burton
In an emotional Instagram post addressing the Roe v. Wade reversal, One Tree Hill star Hilarie Burton reminded her fans that she struggled with infertility and experienced a series of miscarriages prior to having her now 4-year-old daughter.
"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," she wrote. "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. I only have my daughter because of my abortion."
Toni Braxton
Although many women have few qualms about needing to get an abortion or worries that they'll feel guilt afterward, the decision can feel more fraught for others. (Hey, weirdly enough, it turns out that women are complicated and we don't all think alike.) Toni Braxton wrote in her 2014 memoir that she was more in the latter camp after she became pregnant while on a medication that was counterindicated for expectant mothers.
"I was suddenly faced with a choice I'd never thought I'd have to make. Amid my major misgivings about abortion, I eventually made the gut-wrenching decision."
Minka Kelly
Minka Kelly, one of the stars of Friday Night Lights, wrote about her abortion on Instagram: "When I was younger, I had an abortion. It was the smartest decision I could've made, not only for myself and my boyfriend at the time, but also for this unborn fetus.
"For a baby to have been born to two people — too young and completely ill-equipped, with no means or help from family — would have resulted in a child born into an unnecessary world of struggle," she continued. "Having a baby at that time would have only perpetuated the cycle of poverty, chaos, and dysfunction I was born into."
Alyssa Milano
Alyssa Milano was in her early 20s and "in love for the first time, in the breathless way you can only be in love when you are young," when she became pregnant twice in 1993. She shared on her podcast, Sorry, Not Sorry, that both times she chose to exercise her right to an abortion, something she said was a difficult choice. "It was not something I wanted, but it was something I needed — like most health care is," she explained.
Ashley Judd
After she was raped, Ashley Judd discovered she was pregnant and realized that she could be forced, due to state regulations at the time, to co-parent with her rapist if she chose to carry the pregnancy to term. She opted for an abortion instead.
"Having safe access to abortion was personally important to me, and democracy starts with our skin. We're not supposed to regulate what we choose to do with our insides," she told People in 2019.
Jameela Jamil
Jameela Jamil is never one to shy away from saying what she really thinks, and she is very outspoken about supporting the right of women to access safe and legal reproductive health care. She's also been refreshingly candid about her own experience, posting on Instagram, "Abortion saved my life. It was not hard for me. I live with zero regret, only deep relief and gratitude."
Stevie Nicks
Singer Stevie Nicks has gone on record as saying that if it wasn't for abortion, there would likely never have been a Fleetwood Mac. Oh man, who could want that?!
She had an abortion in 1979.
"I knew that the music we were going to bring to the world was going to heal so many people's hearts and make people so happy. And I thought, 'You know what? That's really important. There's not another band in the world that has two lead women singers, two lead women writers.' That was my world's mission," she said in a 2020 interview with The Guardian.
Billie Jean King
Billie Jean King was at the top of her tennis game and married when she became pregnant. At the time, she was forced to get her husband's signature and appeal to a panel of doctors to get permission for a termination. She described it in a 2021 essay for the Washington Post. "Arguing to a dozen or so people I had never met why I qualified for an abortion remains one of the most degrading experiences of my life," she shared.
Margaret Cho
LGBTQ icon Margaret Cho is all about trying to remove the stigma around talking about abortion. She has referenced experiences in her stand-up comedy routines, and now she is encouraging all supporters of legal abortion rights to fight back against anti-choice conservatives who want to ban it altogether.
"It is time to stoop to their level and really sling that mud and get down there and fight," she urged in a June 2022 essay for The Hollywood Reporter. "Because we cannot be polite and allow these things to happen anymore. We cannot imagine that we are living in a polite society because we are not. It's time to really take a stand."
Tess Holliday
Model and blogger Tess Holliday shared the truth that, yes, married women and moms have abortions too. In a 2019 Instagram post, she wrote: "I'm from Mississippi, living in California, married with two kids, and I had an abortion. If I was still down south, I might not have been able to get the abortion I wanted and needed.
"My mental health couldn't handle being pregnant again and I made the best decision for ME and ultimately my family," she continued. "It wasn't the 'easy thing to do,' it was excruciating on many levels, but necessary. Do I regret it or question my choice? Not at all."
