Celebrities Who Opened Up About Having Abortions

Kerry Washington

Kerry Washington had an abortion in her 20s and opened up about it for the primary time in her 2023 memoir, Thicker Than Water. Washington recalled giving docs a pretend title to guard her privateness, as her profession was simply taking off on the time due to her position in Save the Final Dance. She shared that she felt some disgrace and hypocrisy over the process, provided that she’d labored as a sexual well being educator as a youngster.

“It took me a very long time to forgive myself, not for having the abortion… however for getting pregnant,” Washington mentioned of the expertise in a March 2026 look on Call Her Daddy. “The selection to have an abortion was so clear… I knew it was proper for me.” 

“I used to be at an age the place I might have chosen to have a toddler. I used to be in a relationship the place I might have chosen to have a toddler,” she added. “I simply knew it wasn’t proper for me.”

“That leaves room for lots of people to disagree,” Washington continued. “You get this one life and I knew that this was the proper alternative for me.”

Washington defended the proper to an abortion, saying, “By the point a girl makes the choice to have an abortion, it’s by no means a straightforward determination and so I feel we have to give individuals grace.” 

“The entire onus will get placed on girls [and] it’s simply so unfair,” she mentioned.

“My daughters don’t have the identical rights that I did,” Washington mentioned. “If this was actually about saving lives then we’d do a greater job of saving the youngsters that exist on the planet proper now.”

Danielle Brooks

Oscar-nominated actress Danielle Brooks revealed on July 2025 in the course of the Pregnant Pause podcast that she needed to endure an abortion.

“It was actually arduous [and] very, very troublesome to truly have an abortion. It was not what I needed, however there was no means round it,” she mentioned, revealing it was as a result of one of many medicines she was taking on the time.

She added, “I feel it’s vital to share [and] I’ve been holding that for years now, however I feel there comes a time the place it’s, like, ‘You understand what? I need to [share] this as a result of I do know that there’s some lady on the market [who] is perhaps experiencing the identical factor.”

Paris Hilton

In a 2023 interview with Glamour UK, Paris Hilton shared she had an abortion in her early 20s, as a result of she “was not prepared for” all that got here with being pregnant and parenthood at such a younger age

“This was additionally one thing that I didn’t need to speak about as a result of there was a lot disgrace round that,” Hilton mentioned. “I used to be a child and I used to be not prepared for that.”

She additionally opened up about about her emotions on the over-turn of Roe v Wade: “I feel it is vital [to speak out]. There’s simply a lot politics round it and all that, however it’s a girl’s physique… Why ought to there be a legislation primarily based on that? It’s your physique, your alternative and I actually consider in that.”

Phoebe Bridgers

Following information of the leaked opinion that, if finalized, would overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade courtroom determination, singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers shared by way of Twitter that whereas on tour in 2021, she had a protected, efficient medicine abortion due to Deliberate Parenthood. 

“I had an abortion in October of final 12 months whereas I used to be on tour. I went to Deliberate Parenthood the place they gave me the abortion capsule,” Bridgers shared. “It was simple. Everybody deserves that sort of entry. “

Stevie Nicks

Shortly after the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Courtroom, Stevie Nicks spoke to The Guardian about her worry for the state of abortion entry and what it meant that she might safely terminate her personal being pregnant in 1979, simply two years after “Rumours”.

“If I had not had that abortion, I’m fairly certain there would have been no Fleetwood Mac,” Nicks mentioned. “There’s simply no means that I might have had a toddler then, working as arduous as we labored continually. And there have been a whole lot of medication… I might have needed to stroll away.” 

Nicks felt that the aim Fleetwood Mac was fulfilling was greater than having kids. “I knew that the music we have been going to carry to the world was going to heal so many individuals’s hearts and make individuals so joyful. And I assumed: You understand what? That’s actually vital,” she mentioned. “There’s not one other band on the planet that has two lead girls singers, two lead girls writers. That was my world’s mission.”

Sally Discipline

Sally Discipline had an abortion earlier than Roe v. Wade was handed, and known as the expertise “traumatic” in an Instagram video forward of the 2024 election. Discipline defined that she was simply 17 years outdated on the time and felt disgrace when she realized she was pregnant. “I had no selections in my life, I didn’t have a whole lot of household help or funds,” mentioned Discipline, who added that she’d simply graduated from highschool on the time and was nonetheless determining what she needed to do together with her life.

In the end, a physician who was a buddy of her household drove Discipline to Tijuana, Mexico to get the process executed. Discipline “had no anesthetic” in the course of the process and mentioned she was molested throughout it as nicely, calling the expertise “past hideous and life-altering.” She additionally drew parallels to “issues girls are going by means of now,” after the Dobbs determination took away the federal proper to abortion. “They’re making an attempt to get to a different state, they don’t have the cash, they don’t have the means,” Discipline mentioned. “And it’s past, how one can return to that and try this to our little women and our younger girls, and never have respect and regard for his or her well being and their very own choices about whether or not they really feel they’re in a position to give start to a toddler.”

Ashley Judd

Actress Ashley Judd was one of many first individuals to go on document together with her allegation against Harvey Weinstein, has spoken on the Ladies’s March, and is a passionate activist for girls’s rights and the concept “democracy begins with our pores and skin.”

In 2019, Judd addressed Georgia’s fetal heartbeat invoice and the way, as a three-time rape survivor, protected abortion entry was life-changing for her. 

“One of many instances that I used to be raped,” Judd shared, “there was conception. And I’m very grateful I used to be in a position to entry protected and authorized abortion. As a result of the rapist, who’s a Kentuckian… has paternity rights in Kentucky and Tennessee. I might’ve needed to co-parent with my rapist.”

Jameela Jamil

Jameela Jamil first opened up about her abortion in 2019 when a law was handed in Georgia making the process unlawful as quickly as a heartbeat will be detected (which will be as early as six weeks into being pregnant). In a since-deleted tweet, she known as the legislation “upsetting, inhumane, and blatantly demonstrative of a hatred of ladies, a disregard for our rights, our bodies, psychological well being, and basically a punishment for rape victims.”

Jamil went on to share her personal story. “I had an abortion once I was younger, and it was one of the best determination I’ve ever made,” she wrote. “Each for me, and for the newborn I didn’t need, and wasn’t prepared for, emotionally, psychologically and financially.”

Folks had quite a bit to say about The Good Place actor’s stance on reproductive rights. In a separate tweet, Jamil added: “Name me no matter you want. I’m not sorry about my abortion. Contraception failed me and I did what was finest for my psychological and bodily well being on the time. And I might do it once more if I needed to. I don’t really feel at ALL ashamed, and when you had one too, for any motive, neither must you.”

Busy Philipps

Busy Philipps opened up about abortion on her late-night speak present in 2019 and in her 2018 ebook, This Will Solely Harm a Little.

“I had an abortion once I was 15 years outdated,” the actress mentioned on Busy Tonight. “And I’m telling you that I’m actually scared for girls and women throughout this nation.”

That very same 12 months, Philipps testified earlier than the Home Judiciary Committee about why she obtained an abortion at age 15 in Arizona, the place current state laws make it way more troublesome to get entry to that well being care.  

“I’m so unhappy that we’ve to sit down right here in entrance of a row of politicians and provides deeply private statements,” Philipps mentioned in her testimony in 2019. “As a result of the ‘why’ doesn’t matter. It shouldn’t matter. I’m a human being that deserves autonomy on this nation that calls itself free, and selections {that a} human being makes about their very own our bodies shouldn’t be legislated by strangers who can’t probably know or perceive every particular person’s circumstances or beliefs.”

Chrissy Teigen

Chrissy Teigen went by means of what she initially thought was a miscarriage in 2020, when she misplaced her son Jack after experiencing being pregnant problems. It wasn’t till she was speaking together with her husband, John Legend, after the Supreme Courtroom overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, that he advised her she’d really undergone a life-saving abortion.

“I by no means skilled any ache in it so I by no means considered it as being something aside from a miscarriage,” Teigen defined in an October 2024 speech in Arizona to help a right-to-abortion initiative, per CNN. “We hear the phrase abortion, we expect there’s some sort of ache with it… nowhere in these days within the hospital getting blood transfusions did I feel that I used to be at risk of shedding this child as a result of I used to be in no ache.”

Placing phrases to the expertise and sharing it overtly is a means for Teigen to combat the “stigma across the phrase ‘abortion,’” she mentioned. “No one needs to say abortion … I didn’t even know I had one. And that was so embarrassing to confess in entrance of all the world.”

Amber Tamblyn

In 2022, Amber Tamblyn joined the #YouKnowMe dialog on-line, tweeting, “In 2012, I had an abortion. It was one of many hardest choices I’ve ever needed to make. I nonetheless give it some thought to at the present time. However these truths don’t make me remorse my determination. It was the proper alternative for me, at the moment in my life. I’ve not a single doubt about this.”

The actress opened up after Alabama lawmakers voted to outlaw being pregnant termination and threaten docs with a 99-year jail sentence in the event that they ignore the laws, proper after state officers in Georgia signed the fetal heartbeat invoice.

Minka Kelly

After Alabama lawkmakers successfully banned abortions in 2019, actress Minka Kelly shared her #YouKnowMe story in a prolonged submit on Instagram, explaining how an abortion saved her from a lifetime of wrestle.

“For a child to’ve been born to 2 individuals — too younger and fully unwell outfitted — with no means or assist from household, would have resulted in a toddler born into an pointless world of wrestle. Having a child at the moment would have solely perpetuated the cycle of poverty, chaos and dysfunction I used to be born into,” she wrote. 

Kelly additionally famous that denying abortion entry ignores what occurs to the ladies carrying these kids, and does nothing to help moms after the youngsters are born.

Nicki Minaj

Nicki Minaj obtained private about her abortion in 2014, shortly after the discharge of her album The Pinkprint.

“I assumed I used to be going to die,” she advised Rolling Stone of the time she came upon she was pregnant in highschool. “I used to be a youngster. It was the toughest factor I’d ever gone by means of.” Although the singer famous the choice has “haunted” her all her life, she additionally felt it was the proper factor to do. “It’d be contradictory if mentioned I wasn’t pro-choice. I wasn’t prepared. I didn’t have something to supply a toddler.”

Tess Holliday

Whereas sharing her #YouKnowMe story on Instagram, mannequin Tess Holliday spoke to the truth that if she have been nonetheless residing within the South at present, she won’t have been in a position to have the abortion she final did. “My psychological well being couldn’t deal with being pregnant once more,” she wrote. “I made one of the best determination for ME & finally my household. It wasn’t the ‘simple factor to do’, it was excruciating on many ranges, however needed. Do I remorse it or query my alternative? In no way.”

Although Holliday particularly reacted to the ban on abortions in Alabama, she famous that the difficulty is related to everybody; the widespread false impression that solely cis, heterosexual girls can get pregnant has made entry to abortions disproportionately troublesome for queer, trans and non-binary of us.

Lisa Marie Presley

In her memoir From Here to the Great Unknown, Lisa Marie Presley revealed she had an abortion that she finally regretted, after getting pregnant with then-partner Danny Keough. In excerpts shared in People, Presley wrote that she was “sloppy” when it got here to being pregnant prevention and didn’t use contraception, and she or he and Keough have been not sure what to do when she obtained pregnant.

Presley mentioned she was “devastated” after the abortion, and that her relationship with Keough “fell aside” quickly after. “I couldn’t reside with myself,” Presley defined. However, due to her guilt, Presley later “deliberate and plotted and schemed” to get pregnant by Keough once more, whether or not “he needed to be part of it or not. I felt that I needed to redeem, to make amends, as a result of I nonetheless couldn’t consider I had had an abortion,” she wrote. They finally had two kids collectively, Riley Keough and Benjamin Storm.

Tara Lipinski

Tara Lipinski has been open about her fertility struggles, and in 2024, she revealed that her journey to motherhood concerned 4 surgical abortions.

In an essay for Allure, Lipinski recalled experiencing “utter disbelief and heartbreak” when she discovered her first being pregnant wasn’t viable, and her physician suggestions she have a D&C (dilation and curettage process, also referred to as a surgical abortion). “Carrying an unviable being pregnant needs to be some of the disturbing experiences,” Lipinski wrote. “You are feeling pregnant… however as a substitute of realizing there’s a lightweight on the finish of the tunnel, {that a} child will come from all this ache, you’re compelled to sit down and wait [for an abortion].”

Lipinski repeated that have three extra instances, explaining she sacrificed her psychological and bodily well being whereas struggling to get pregnant and underwent “traumatic” experiences adopted lastly by a way of “aid” after her closing abortion. “Even when I couldn’t have the newborn that I so desperately needed, I knew that my well being was in good arms and that I might be on the highway to restoration quickly, even when my journey by means of the grief would by no means absolutely heal,” she wrote.

Lipinski additionally used the experiences to take a stand for reproductive rights. “With out my abortions, and the required medical care that I required, I don’t know if I might be right here at present,” the Olympian wrote. “… Ladies deserve the medical entry that they need, and wish.”

Maya Henry

Former mannequin Maya Henry’s debut novel, Wanting Ahead, options an abortion scene that’s “very related” to 1 Henry went by means of in actual life, she advised People in Could 2024. “If it have been as much as me, I wouldn’t have executed it,” Henry mentioned of her abortion. “However then additionally, if I have been to have made a unique determination, then I might’ve misplaced the person who I cherished. There have been undoubtedly troublesome conversations about it.” 

Henry advised the outlet that she skilled problems in the course of the abortion and needed to go to the hospital, expressing frustration that her expertise was downplayed beforehand. “It was very lonely, having these males let you know, ‘Oh, it’s going to really feel like a heavy interval, it’s not going to be that painful, it’s going to be simple.’ However I’m like, you’ve by no means even gone by means of something like [this], so how would you realize to inform me?” Henry defined — which was why she determined to put in writing about it. “I’ve seen so many individuals on-line speak about taking the abortion capsule and it was probably the most painful factor for them. It’s simply thoughts boggling to me that you may inform a girl how they’re going to really feel.”