"I Have No Regrets": 24 Celebs Who Opened Up About Their Abortions
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In an excerpt from her upcoming memoir, The Woman in Me, the singer shared that she had an abortion while dating Justin Timberlake. "It was a surprise, but for me, it wasn’t a tragedy. I loved Justin so much. I always expected us to have a family together one day. This would just be much earlier than I’d anticipated. But Justin definitely wasn’t happy about the pregnancy. He said we weren’t ready to have a baby in our lives, that we were way too young.
"If it had been left up to me alone, I never would have done it. And yet Justin was so sure that he didn’t want to be a father. To this day, it’s one of the most agonizing things I have ever experienced in my life."
In 2019, the actor joined other social media users in sharing her abortion story following an Alabama law that effectively banned abortion. Per People magazine, she tweeted that she had an abortion because it was not a good time in her life to raise a child: "I was worried about my career responsibilities and afraid that I could not exist as both a career woman and mother."
Keke later deleted the tweet and wrote, "Twitter is sometimes too flat and too short to express intimate sentiments. Words without context, very annoying. I am disheartened about hearing the news in Alabama. I feel as if women rights laws are going backwards. Individual choice is being taken. I’m truly so confused at the world [right now] and the policies that follow."
At the Day of Unreasonable Conversation summit, the TV personality shared a revelation she recently had: that the pregnancy loss she suffered was actually an abortion. "Two years ago, when I was pregnant with Jack, John and my third child, I had to make a lot of difficult and heartbreaking decisions," she said. "It became very clear around halfway through that he would not survive and that I wouldn’t either without any medical intervention. Let’s just call it what it was: It was an abortion. An abortion to save my life for a baby that had absolutely no chance. ...
"I told the world we had a miscarriage, the world agreed we had a miscarriage, all the headlines said it was a miscarriage. And I became really frustrated that I didn’t, in the first place, say what it was, and I felt silly that it had taken me over a year to actually understand that we had had an abortion."
The singer had an abortion back in 1979, when Fleetwood Mac was in its heyday. During an interview with the Guardian, she said, "If I had not had that abortion, I’m pretty sure there would have been no Fleetwood Mac. There’s just no way that I could have had a child then, working as hard as we worked constantly. [...] And 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."
5.Kerry Washington
In her memoir, Thicker Than Water, the actor recalls getting an abortion in her 20s and giving doctors a fake name to protect her privacy. She told People magazine that she originally debated including the story in her book: "It's just so important to me that 'abortion' is not a bad word, and that my abortion is not another thing on the list of things that I'm ashamed of. We're at a moment where it's really important to be telling the truth about our reproductive choices because some of those choices are being stripped away from us."
6.Phoebe Bridgers
The day after leaked documents indicated that the Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade, the singer shared her experience on Twitter, now known as X: "I had an abortion in October of last year while I was on tour. I went to planned parenthood where they gave me the abortion pill. It was easy. Everyone deserves that kind of access."
7.Jameela Jamil
On an episode of The View, the actor revealed that she got pregnant despite two forms of birth control, saying, "When I had my abortion, it's because I used a condom, and it broke. And then I took the morning-after pill within six hours, which is way before the end of when you're supposed to take it. And because I was over 175 pounds, it didn't work on me. And the pharmacist didn't tell me that. That's not general knowledge: If you're over a certain weight, it's less effective.
"That's not my fault. I shouldn't have to give up the rest of my life, or risk my life, or maybe die because contraception made by men failed."
8.Laura Prepon
During a sonogram appointment at 16 weeks, the actor knew something was wrong as soon as the sonographer looked at the screen. It turned out to be cystic hygroma. Laura told People, "Our neonatal specialist told us the brain was not growing and the bones were not growing. We were told the pregnancy would not go to full term and that my body was at risk carrying any longer. [My husband] Ben held me as I cried. We had to terminate the pregnancy."
9.Ashley Judd
At the 2019 Women in the World summit, the actor shared why protesting abortion bans is so important to her: "As everyone knows, and I’m very open about it, I’m a three-time rape survivor. And one of the times I was raped, there was conception. And I’m very thankful I was able to access safe and legal abortion. Because the rapist — who is a Kentuckian, as am I — and I reside in Tennessee, [he] has paternity rights in Kentucky and Tennessee. I would’ve had to co-parent with my rapist.
"So having safe access to abortion was personally important to me, and as I said earlier, democracy starts with our skin. We’re not supposed to regulate what we choose to do with our insides."
10.Nicki Minaj
The rapper told Rolling Stone that she thought she "was going to die" when she discovered she was pregnant: "I was a teenager. It was the hardest thing I’d ever gone through." She felt "haunted" by the experience, but she believes it was the right choice. "It’d be contradictory if I said I wasn’t pro-choice. I wasn’t ready. I didn’t have anything to offer a child," she said.
11.Uma Thurman
In response to a Texas abortion ban, the actor penned an essay for the Washington Post that detailed her abortion experience, writing, "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. [...] 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."
12.Lily Allen
After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, many social media users pointed out scenarios where abortions are necessary to save the pregnant person's life. On her Instagram story, the singer wrote, according to Glamour, "I wish people would stop posting examples of exceptional reasons for having abortions. Most people I know, myself included, just didn't want to have a fucking baby. AND THAT IS REASON ENOUGH! WE DON'T HAVE TO JUSTIFY IT. It shouldn't have to be said, and I think all these examples just play into the hands of baddies."
13.Rita Moreno
During an interview with Variety, the actor recalled boyfriend Marlon Brando finding a doctor through friends when she became pregnant back in the days before Roe v. Wade. "He was a real doctor — Marlon paid him $500 — as opposed to something in a back alley," Rita said. But when she returned home after the procedure, she began to bleed. "Marlon took me to the hospital. I had what they told me was a 'disturbed pregnancy,'" she said. "The doctor didn’t do anything, really, except make me bleed. 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."
14.Cheryl Burke
The dancer took to TikTok to share the story of the abortion she got at age 18: "I was practicing safe sex. I was using protection, and I was on birth control, and shit happens. I was two weeks pregnant when I got an abortion, and I remember rolling up to Planned Parenthood with picketers holding anti-abortion 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 absolutely insanity. ...
"It is nobody's business, and honestly, I'm happy that I made that decision. I have no regrets, there's no shame behind it. I've just chosen to share it now, but that doesn't mean that there was any shame."
15.Rose McGowan
In response to a tweet stating that 1 in 4 women have an abortion by age 45, the actor wrote, per ET Canada, "I have had an abortion, and I support this message. I am not ashamed, nor should you be. That 60% of those who choose to have abortions are already mothers says a lot — they understand more than anyone. I was on birth control, and it failed. I realized I could not bring a child into my world and simultaneously change the world. I do not regret my decision, and it was not made lightly. If you do not want an abortion, don’t get one. My body, my choice, my life."
16.Lauren Conrad
After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the fashion designer recalled her "lifesaving reproductive care" in a series of Instagram stories, per People magazine: "Six years ago, while trying to start our family, I had an ectopic pregnancy. Due to prompt medical care, doctors saved my fallopian tubes, allowing me to have two healthy pregnancies.
"Yesterday I read about a woman with this same condition having her ectopic pregnancy rupture — and facing death — while waiting for treatment. Because her doctor was on the phone with his lawyer out of fear of losing his medical license (for using a D&C as a tool to help establish the diagnosis of an ectopic pregnancy). This is heartbreaking. [...] I hope someday we will be in a place where every woman has access to the healthcare she needs and the freedom to decide what happens in her own body."
17.Tess Holliday
In response to an Alabama abortion ban, the model took to Instagram to condemn the law, writing, "I’m from Mississippi, living in California, married with 2 kids, & I had an abortion. If I was still down south, I might not have been able to get the abortion I wanted & needed. My mental health couldn’t handle being pregnant again & I made the best decision for ME & ultimately my family. 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."
18.Susan Sarandon
During an interview with the Guardian, the actor said, "I had an abortion in my 20s. 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."
19.Whoopi Goldberg
In the book The Choices We Made: Twenty-Five Women and Men Speak Out About Abortion, the actor recounted her abortion story during the time before Roe v. Wade, as quoted by People: "I found out I was pregnant when I was fourteen. I didn't get a period. I talked to nobody. I panicked." She took potentially deadly "concoctions" that girls told her about in an attempt to terminate the pregnancy. "I got violently ill," she wrote. "At that moment 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."
20.Minka Kelly
On Instagram, the actor condemned politicians who ban abortion. "When I was younger I had an abortion," she wrote. "It was the smartest decision I could’ve made, not only for myself & my boyfriend at the time, but also for this unborn fetus. For a baby to’ve 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. Having a baby at that time would have only perpetuated the cycle of poverty, chaos and dysfunction I was born into. [...]
"If you insist on forcing women to carry to term, why do you refuse to talk about comprehensive sex-ed, the maternal mortality rate, free daycare, paid maternity leave? Our lives, traumas & family planning is for no one to decide but us. Certainly not a group of old white men."
21.Margaret Cho
The comedian has spoken about abortion often in her stand-up shows. "I talk a lot about abortion, and people get really freaked out. I'm not even making a political statement. I'm just talking about what happened! I have had them and I want to talk about them," she told xoJane, per Fortune. "I don't care what your views are toward abortion, I just think women should be talking about it. If males had to have abortions, it would be something that was routinely discussed, and the emotional life of it would be really examined."
22.Hannah Gadsby
During an interview with Variety, the comedian criticized the Alabama abortion ban, saying, "Had I been in that state, under these laws, under these politics at that time in my life, I would be dead. It's as simple as that. I was assaulted, raped, and very, very vulnerable. How was I going to raise a child? I would have ended up dead. How is that pro-life? You can't say women can't have abortions and then provide absolutely no infrastructure to help them."
23.Alyssa Milano
On an episode of her Sorry Not Sorry podcast, the actor shared her story in response to restrictive abortion laws (per USA Today): "In 1993, I had two abortions. I was in love for the first time, in the breathless way you can only be in love when you are young." Despite being on birth control, she became pregnant. "It was devastating. I was raised Catholic and was suddenly put in conflict with my faith." Due to several factors, like the desire to focus on her career, suffering from crippling anxiety, and not being "equipped to become a mother," she decided to have an abortion.
"I chose. It was my choice. And it was absolutely the right choice for me. It was not an easy choice. It was not something I wanted, but it was something I needed — like most healthcare is."
24.And finally: Halsey
In response to the overturn of Roe v. Wade, the singer wrote an open letter for Vogue: "Many people have asked me if, since carrying a child to term after years of struggling to do so, I have reconsidered my stance on abortion. The answer is firmly no. In fact, I have never felt more strongly about it."
Halsey recalled experiencing three miscarriages before the age of 24. "One of my miscarriages required 'aftercare,' a gentle way of saying that I would need an abortion, because my body could not terminate the pregnancy completely on its own, and I would risk going into sepsis without medical intervention," she wrote. "During this procedure, I cried. I was afraid for myself, and I was helpless. I was desperate to end the pregnancy that was threatening my life. [...]
"My abortion saved my life and gave way for my son to have his. Every person deserves the right to choose when, if, and how they have this dangerous and life-altering experience. I will hold my son in one arm, and fight with all my might with the other."
