Chelsea Handler Defends Honest ‘Playboy’ Essay About Her Abortions

Chelsea Handler took to Twitter to defend her decision to write about her abortions in an effort to highlight the importance of a woman’s right to choose.

Chelsea Handler On Abortion Essay

Handler received criticism from people on Twitter after Playboy published her essay that detailed two abortions she had at 16. In response to the criticism, Handler tweeted about the importance of being honest, particularly in showing support for a woman’s right to choose.

“When I agreed to write an article on a woman’s right to choose, I certainly wasn’t bragging,” Handler wrote. “I chose to tell the truth. #shouldbemoreofit.”

In her essay for Playboy, Handler admitted that the first time that she got pregnant at 16, she considered going through with the pregnancy. The comedian now thanks her parents for bringing her to Planned Parenthood to have an abortion.

“I was going through a very bad stage in my life. I hated my parents and I was having unprotected sex with my boyfriend, who was not someone I should’ve been having sex with in the first place, never mind unprotected sex. I wasn’t really playing with a full deck of cards, and when I got pregnant I just thought, Why not? I can have a baby,” Handler wrote. “Of course, the idea that I would have a child and raise it by myself at that age, when I couldn’t even find my way home at night, was ridiculous. My parents recognized that, so they acted like parents for one of the very first times in my life and took me to Planned Parenthood.”

Handler would have a second abortion at age 16, and, once again, visited Planned Parenthood.

I didn’t have the money the second time. I had to scrape together the $230 to pay Planned Parenthood, but it was a safe abortion. Getting unintentionally pregnant more than once is irresponsible, but it’s still necessary to make a thoughtful decision,” Handler explained. “We all make mistakes all the time. […] I’m grateful that I came to my senses and was able to get an abortion legally without risking my health or bankrupting myself or my family. I’m 41 now. I don’t ever look back and think, God, I wish I’d had that baby.”

Handler concluded her essay with a full-throated endorsement for protecting a woman’s right to choose what to do with her body.

“Like millions of women, I can live my life without an unplanned child born out of an unhealthy relationship because of Roe v. Wade. It’s infuriating to hear politicians make bogus promises about overturning this ruling that has protected us for more than 40 years,” Handler wrote. “It’s okay if you think it’s not right for women to have abortions—but it’s not your problem, because we decide. We have 7.3 billion people on this planet. Anybody who carefully decides not to become a parent—let alone a bad parent, which is what I would have become—should be applauded for making a smart and sustainable decision.”