Television presenter Cathy Newman has become the latest high-profile woman to announce her experience of having an abortion, as the prospect of the US Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade sparks a defiant flow of testimony.
Post on Twitter On Thursday, the Channel 4 news anchor wrote that she was sad to have an abortion but that she “didn’t regret even one second.”
“Every woman — here, in America and all over the world — needs that option,” Newman said.
Since Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion was leaked to Politico on May 2, explaining his belief that the landmark 1973 decision guaranteeing the right to abortion was “grossly wrong from the start,” women have been speaking out about their terminations.
On Tuesday, American singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridges chirp: “I had an abortion in October last year while on tour. I went to Parenting, where they gave me abortion pills. It was easy. Everyone deserves that kind of access.”
In Manhattan, New York Attorney General Letitia James told a crowd of protesters that for her abortion, she “proudly entered Planned Parenthood — and I make no apologies to anyone. To no one.” She describes herself as a believing woman, James Gathering said: “My Lord says you should make the best decision for you and your life.”
Newman wrote in The Independent that Alito’s leaked decision set back “one of the toughest times.” [her] life”, after she and her husband were told, more than 15 years ago, that the baby she was carrying was severely defective and unlikely to survive.
While many women chose to emphasize their relief at being able to terminate their pregnancies, Newman described the experience as “devastating.” But, she said, although the decision was difficult, it was true: “There is no day I regret it,” she writes.
More women are speaking out now. American podcast host Michaela Oakland He told her 296000 followers on Twitter That she had an abortion at the age of 19, but she never felt comfortable talking about it online. “People have horrible opinions about it, and even now I’m afraid to talk about it,” she said.
Despite the stigma, women around the world have appeared in public. under the hashtag # tale And #ihadanabortion, Twitter users reminded of their experiences terminating a pregnancy.
“I hope this spreads,” Single books. “I was in a very abusive marriage when I found out I was pregnant. I made the hard choice to have an abortion. I would never have left my abuser if I had a child. I have no regrets. It should be a legal and safe choice for any woman.”
Egg Dixona writer at Rolling Stone, wrote, “I’ve never shared this here, but damn: I had an abortion. I also have a baby, and I’m currently expecting another. I’ll be honest, I had incredibly complicated feelings about both options. But I didn’t. I never feel anything but deep gratitude that I *had* had a choice.”
a student She wrote that five months after receiving her doctorate, she had an abortion, knowing that she could not maintain her academic standards and give the child she already had the same opportunities.
“People truly sympathize with women who choose to have an abortion for medical reasons,” she wrote. “This wasn’t me. I faced the reality of my economic class and career aspirations. If love was a currency, I could have given it too much… But that is not the case.”
The wave of testimony is not the first to be sparked by shifts in the US legal landscape. Last year, when Texas passed a near-total ban on abortion, actress Uma Thurman revealed how she terminated her pregnancy as a teenager. although [it was] “The hardest decision of my life,” she wrote, “choosing not to carry on with my early pregnancy allowed me to grow into the mother I wanted and needed.”
In 2020, after the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, leaving a seat on the Supreme Court vacant for Donald Trump’s nominee, Amy Connie Barrett, Fleetwood Mac singer Stevie Nicks said she had an abortion in 1979.
“Had I not had this abortion, I’m pretty sure there wouldn’t be a Fleetwood Mac,” she told the Guardian. “There was no way I could have had a child at the time, as I worked hard as we worked constantly. There was a lot of drugs, I was on a lot of drugs… I would have had to walk away.”
In 2019, after the state of Georgia passed a “heartbeat bill,” which would ban abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, British actress Jamila Jamil wrote on Twitter:
“I had an abortion when I was young, and it was the best decision I made. Both for me and for the baby, I didn’t want it and wasn’t emotionally, psychologically and financially ready for it. Many children would end up in foster care. So many lives destroyed. So cruel very “.
The Georgia Act of 2019 was permanently blocked the following year by a federal judge who found it in violation of the United States Constitution. In his ruling, Steve Jones cited case law including the Roe v Wade case and a subsequent Supreme Court decision, Casey v Planned Parenthood. Both rulings, according to the document leaked this week, “must be overturned.”
