Uma Thurman opened up about what she called “the hardest decision” of her life as she revealed having an abortion in her late teens in an op-ed published Tuesday.
“In my late teens, I was accidentally impregnated by a much older man,” the 51-year-old actress shared in an op-ed for The Washington Post. The comments were noted by CBS in a piece published Wednesday.
“I was living out of a suitcase in Europe, far from my family, and about to start a job,” she added. “I struggled to figure out what to do. I wanted to keep the baby, but how?” (RELATED: ‘Texas Taliban’: Abortion Law Is As Bad As Literal Terrorists, According To Liberal Activists)
Uma Thurman reveals she had an abortion as a teenager in op-ed criticizing Texas law: “I have no regrets” https://t.co/gdolxxGlFG
— CBS News (@CBSNews) September 22, 2021
Thurman wrote that she reached out to her parents for help to decide what to do and that her “childish fantasy of motherhood was soundly corrected” as she listened to their “very precise questions.” (RELATED: Supreme Court Takes Up Major Abortion Case Directly Challenging Roe V. Wade)
“I was just starting out in my career and didn’t have the means to provide a stable home, even for myself,” the “Pulp Fiction” star wrote. “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.”
Thurman said she underwent an abortion procedure in Germany and shared how every “part of the process hurt,” but that she felt it was “pain” she deserved.
“There is so much pain in this story,” Uma explained. “It has been my darkest secret until now. I have no regrets for the path I have traveled…The abortion I had as a teenager was the hardest decision of my life, one that 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. Choosing not to keep that early pregnancy allowed me to grow up and become the mother I wanted and needed to be.”
The film star said the reason she wrote the piece was to show her support for women and girls who find themselves in similar situations and “might feel shame that they can’t protect themselves” in light of the passage of the Texas law banning abortions at six weeks of pregnancy.
Texas’ Heartbeat Act, which was signed into law May 19, makes exceptions for medical emergencies but not in cases of rape or incest. It also allows citizens in and out of the state of Texas the ability to sue individuals or abortion clinics who help women obtain abortions, according to The Texas Tribune.
