Uma Thurman has shared her "darkest secret" - she once had an abortion.
Uma Thurman
The 'Kill Bill' actress shared her experience of terminating her pregnancy in her late teens as she criticised the new law in Texas - which allows private citizens to sue abortion providers and anyone else who helps a woman obtain an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, with no exceptions for incest or rape - and explained her decision was made in part because she felt unable to provide a stable home at the time.
She wrote in an op-ed for the Washington Post newspaper: "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. 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?”
The 51-year-old actress sought advice from her family and ultimately opted for a termination, a decision which still causes her "sadness", but she thinks it led her to where she is today.
She continued: “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.
“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.”
Uma - who has children Maya, 23, and Levon, 19, with ex-husband Ethan Hawke, and nine-year-old Luna with Arpad Busson - shared her story “in the hope of drawing the flames of controversy away from the vulnerable women on whom this law will have an immediate effect.”
She added: “It has been my darkest secret until now. I am 51 years old, and I am sharing it with you from the home where I have raised my three children, who are my pride and joy.
“To all of you — to women and girls of Texas, afraid of being traumatised and hounded by predatory bounty hunters; to all women outraged by having our bodies’ rights taken by the state; and to all of you who are made vulnerable and subjected to shame because you have a uterus — I say: I see you. Have courage. You are beautiful. You remind me of my daughters.”
The 'Pulp Fiction' actress described the legislation as a "human rights crisis" that discriminated against "disadvantaged" women.
She wrote: “The Texas abortion law was allowed to take effect without argument by the Supreme Court, which, due in no small part to its lack of ideological diversity, is a staging ground for a human rights crisis for American women. This law is yet another discriminatory tool against those who are economically disadvantaged, and often, indeed, against their partners. Women and children of wealthy families retain all the choices in the world, and face little risk.
“I am grief-stricken, as well, that the law pits citizen against citizen, creating new vigilantes who will prey on these disadvantaged women, denying them the choice not to have children they are not equipped to care for, or extinguishing their hopes for the future family they might choose.
“This law is yet another discriminatory tool against those who are economically disadvantaged, and often, indeed, against their partners.
"Women and children of wealthy families retain all the choices in the world, and face little risk. I am grief-stricken, as well, that the law pits citizen against citizen, creating new vigilantes who will prey on these disadvantaged women, denying them the choice not to have children they are not equipped to care for, or extinguishing their hopes for the future family they might choose.”
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