Alyssa Milano Revealed That She Had 2 Abortions
In 1993, Alyssa Milano had two abortions when she was still in her early 20s — and she's finally opening up about the emotional and physical struggles she went through at the time. People reports that Milano shared the news on her podcast, Alyssa Milano: Sorry Not Sorry, with the hopes that listeners would rethink newly passed laws that make getting an abortion more and more difficult.
Milano joins celebrities such as Amber Tamblyn, Tess Holliday, and Minka Kelly in sharing her abortion story. Previously, she had suggested that women engage in a sex strike to regain what she called "body autonomy," though many shrugged it off as a stunt. During her podcast, she said that she chose to get an abortion on her own terms, not because she felt pressure from anyone else to do so.
"I knew at that time, I was not equipped to be a mother, and so I chose to have an abortion," Milano said. "I chose. It was my choice. And it was absolutely the right choice for me."
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She noted that she was in a serious relationship and on birth control when she got her abortion. Fresh off filming Who’s The Boss, which made her a household name, she says that she wasn't prepared to be a mother and wanted to focus on her career and future. She also added that she was on medication at the time that could have caused birth defects and that she was struggling with "sometimes crippling anxiety."
In addition to her sex strike, she also urged filmmakers and production companies to pull out of Georgia after the state passed its "heartbeat" anti-abortion bill.
"It was not an easy choice," she continued. "It was not something I wanted, but it was something that I needed, like most health care is."
She explained that her second unplanned pregnancy also occurred when she was on birth control. Again, she says that she did what she had to.
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"I had done what I knew to do to prevent pregnancy and was still pregnant, so once again I made the right decision to end that pregnancy," she said. She went on to say that because of those two abortions, she managed to get to where she is today and have the platform to speak out about reproductive rights. She says that she wouldn't have her children, Elizabeth, 4, and Milo, 7, if she hadn't terminated those pregnancies, because she would be in a totally different place. She wanted her listeners to know that her story wasn't meant to garner sympathy, she wants everyone to fight for what they think is right and for women to live the lives they want without the fear of an unplanned pregnancy altering their plans.
"That's what this fight is all about: freedom. Freedom from oppression. Freedom for women to have the audacity to be equally sexual beings as men," she said. "Freedom for women to live the life they were meant to have, not just the life that is thrust upon them by a pregnancy that cannot exist in their life."
