Uma Thurman Reveals Teen Abortion in Op-Ed

As the DOJ's lawsuit against Texas' abortion ban moves through the courts, a big name is weighing in—and she's got a very personal story to bolster her perspective. In an op-ed for the Washington Post, actress Uma Thurman slams the law, calling it a "discriminatory tool" that will most adversely affect women without much money, and deeming herself "grief-stricken" over the $10,000 bounty that private citizens can now seek by going after women who seek abortions and those who help them. She also bemoans the process that enabled the law to take effect in the first place, calling the conservative-leaning Supreme Court "a staging ground for a human rights crisis for American women."

Thurman, now a 51-year-old mom of three, then reveals her "darkest secret" and the "hardest decision of my life": She had an abortion herself in her late teens, while she was still a struggling actress living abroad and involved with a "much older man." She said she initially wanted to keep the baby, but after conferring with her parents and mulling over the practicalities, she decided "termination was the right choice." "I have no regrets for the path I have traveled," she writes, adding that "I applaud and support women who make a different choice," but "choosing not to keep that early pregnancy allowed me to grow up and become the mother I wanted and needed to be."

Thurman remembers one particularly poignant moment that took place after her abortion in Germany was complete. "You have beautiful hands—you remind me of my daughter," the doctor who performed the procedure told her. She notes she was touched by his compassion and humanity: "In his eyes, I was a person, I was a daughter, I was still a girl." Thurman draws inspiration from that moment in her own message to girls and women in Texas, and everywhere, who "are outraged by having our bodies’ rights taken by the state." "I see you," she writes. "Have courage. You are beautiful. You remind me of my daughters." Read her op-ed in full here. (More Uma Thurman stories.)