- The new
Texas abortion law prohibits any woman from getting an abortion after six weeks. Uma Thurman shared her own story about abortion in a Washington Post essay criticizing the law.- Thurman said she received an abortion as a teen after being impregnated by an older man.
Uma Thurman has spoken out against Texas' abortion laws in a personal new essay in which she details her own experience with abortion.
Writing for The Washington Post, Thurman said she was sharing her own story "in the hope of drawing the flames of controversy away from the vulnerable women on whom this law will have an immediate effect."
The Texas law, which passed in May and went into effect in September, bans women from getting abortions after six weeks. Specifically, abortions are banned when foetal cardiac activity can be detected, which is often before many women even know that they are pregnant.
Thurman discussed her own abortion experience in her essay, which came after she was impregnated by "a much older man" while acting in Europe when she was a late teen.
"I started my acting career at 15, working in an environment where I was often the only kid in the room. 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. I struggled to figure out what to do. I wanted to keep the baby, but how?" Thurman wrote.
"We decided as a family that I couldn't go through with the pregnancy, and agreed that termination was the right choice. My heart was broken nonetheless."
Thurman said the decision to have an abortion was "the hardest decision" of her life and still brings her sadness to this day. However, she stated that "it was the path to the life full of joy and love that [she has] experienced."
She continued: "Choosing not to keep that early pregnancy allowed me to grow up and become the mother I wanted and needed to be."
Thurman went on to criticize the Texas abortion ban, calling it a "human rights crisis." The "Pulp Fiction" and "Kill Bill" star called the law a "discriminatory tool" against people who come from lower incomes, adding that wealthy families will not face the risk that less wealthy ones do.
"I am grief-stricken, as well, that the law pits citizen against citizen, creating new vigilantes who will prey on these disadvantaged women, denying them the choice not to have children they are not equipped to care for, or extinguishing their hopes for the future family they might choose," Thurman said.
The law takes no exceptions in the case of abortions, including rape or incest. Furthermore, as BuzzFeed News reported, the general public is able to enforce the law as they can sue anyone involved in the abortion, from abortion providers to the person who drives a patient to the clinic or lends them money for the procedure.
The Texas law is currently being challenged in court.