The American actress Uma Thurman publicly shared the story of the abortion that she lived as a teenager and that she described as her “darkest secret”.
The interpreter shared her testimony in solidarity with Texas women who have seen their rights restricted by the law that prohibits the procedure after six weeks of gestation.
"I have followed the course of the radical anti-abortion law in Texas with great sadness and something akin to horror," said the actress in an opinion article published on Tuesday in the Washington Post and shared on her Instagram account, where she has 1.2 million followers.
[Eight keys to understanding why the Texas anti-abortion law and the Supreme Court decision are so controversial]
Thurman said she was starting her career in Europe, living alone with a suitcase and away from her family when she got accidentally pregnant by a man much older than her.
"I had a really hard time thinking about what to do. 'I wanted to keep the baby, but how?"
The actress called her family and they concluded that she did not have the resources to have a stable home for herself and even less for a son.
"We decided that she couldn't go through with the pregnancy and we agreed that termination was the right option," she said.
"However, my heart broke," he
added.
"By revealing the hole that this decision made in me, I hope that some light will shine through and that it reaches out to women and girls who may feel a shame that they cannot protect themselves from and have no decision-making power over," Thruman told publicize that an abortion was performed STEPHANE MAHE / REUTERS
The actress's story comes to light weeks after Republican Gov. Greg Abbott enacted one of the most punitive anti-abortion laws in the country.
The norm prohibits abortion from the moment in which cardiac activity can be detected in the fetus, which normally happens from the sixth week of pregnancy.
It does not include exceptions for cases of rape or incest.
["It has consequences for life." What happens when someone who wishes to have an abortion cannot?]
The actress precisely titled her article: "Texas abortion law is a human rights crisis for American women."
The procedure was done in Germany, with the help of a friend who took her to a doctor.
"It hurt a lot, but I didn't complain," he says.
"I
had internalized so much shame that I felt I deserved the pain,
" he explains.
The actress of films such as the interpreter of
Pulp Fiction
or
Kill Bill
describes throughout her story the decision to abort as “the most difficult” she has ever made, and one that still causes her sadness.
But he says it allowed him the life "of love and joy" that he has had.
"Deciding not to maintain that premature pregnancy allowed me to grow and become the mother I wanted and needed to be," she says.
I do not regret the path I have traveled.
I applaud and support women who make a different decision
Uma Thurman
Thurman, who has three children from two different partners, was respectful to those who want to continue with a pregnancy and not have an abortion.
“I do not regret the path that I have traveled.
I applaud and support women who make a different decision, ”she said about it.
Her heartbreaking testimony, shared now at age 51, is dedicated to “vulnerable” women who will not have the same option as her in Texas.
It points out that the law
is a tool to discriminate
against those who are economically disadvantaged.
“To all of you,” Thurman concludes, “to the women and girls of Texas, fearful of being traumatized and harassed by predators, bounty hunters;
to all women outraged by having the rights of our bodies taken by the State;
and
to all those who are vulnerable and subjected to the shame of having a uterus — I say: I see them.
Have courage.
They are beautiful
”.