Uma Thurman Reveals Her Own Abortion Story, Speaking Out Against Restrictive Texas Abortion Law

In response to the stringent abortion ban passed by the Texas state legislature, Uma Thurman shared her own experience with abortion.

Thurman wrote in the Washington Post that her abortion was her “darkest secret.” The actress started her career in her late teens and was alone in Europe when she found herself “accidentally impregnated by a much older man.” Alone and struggling, although Thurman wanted to continue the pregnancy, she was young and not ready to be a mother. Out of options, she decided to terminate the pregnancy.

Although Thurman experienced much “shame” and “grief” associated with her abortion, she conceded that it was the best option as it had allowed her to “grow up and become the mother I wanted and needed to be.”

The Republican-backed law in Texas outlaws almost all abortions after doctors can detect “embryonic cardiac activity,” which is typically at around six weeks (and before most women have even realized their pregnancy status). There are no exceptions to the rule – meaning that even in cases of incest or rape, the women would be forced to carry the pregnancy to term. The only exemption to the law would be for a small number of women with health risks.

The law also empowers vigilantes to sue abortion clinics that carry out abortions and to go after women who are seeking to terminate their pregnancies.

Thurman notes that the law will disproportionately affect already marginalized groups such as minority women, low-income and undocumented people. “Women and children of wealthy families retain all the choices in the world, and face little risk,” she wrote.

“In the hope of drawing the flames of controversy away from vulnerable women on whom this law will have an immediate effect,” Thurman wrote.