The US Supreme Court overturned abortion rights, sparking a storm of outrage among critics. Prominent women in the US also spoke up — with their own stories.
After the US Supreme Court ruled that nationwide abortion rights violated the US Constitution, several prominent US women have come forward with their own experiences of abortion. She had the abortion in 2020, at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, reported Meadow Walker, daughter of the late actor Paul Walker (“Fast
Meadow Walker calls abortion ‘very private experience’
“Today marks a major setback in history — a profound injustice to women in the United States,” the 23-year-old said. “There are countless women who have struggled with the decision to have an abortion. I too have struggled with this decision, but in 2020, as the world collapsed during the pandemic, I made the decision to have an abortion.” It’s a very private and personal experience, and that’s the way it should be.
Walker confessed that she was fortunate to have had great medical support during the debilitating process so that she could now be a happy and healthy person. It is “heartbreaking” to know that more women will not have the opportunity to have a safe abortion and choose their body. In a world where women are constantly marginalized, it feels like the greatest attack of all, the model explained, noting, “A ban on abortion doesn’t prevent abortions, it prevents safe abortions.”
Actor legend Rita Moreno (“West Side Story”) almost died from a botched abortion, as she told the US magazine “Variety”. Years before “Roe v. Wade” she was pregnant by her boyfriend at the time, Marlon Brando. The Hollywood star advised her to have an abortion and he “found a doctor through some friends. He was a real doctor — Marlon paid him $500 — as opposed to something in a backyard,” the 90-year-old Oscar winner described her situation at the time. However, at home she started bleeding and later found out that the abortion was incomplete.
“Marlon took me to the hospital. I was told I had a ‘faulty pregnancy,'” Moreno explained. “The doctor didn’t actually do anything except make me bleed. In other words, he didn’t do it right. I didn’t know it at the time, but I could have died. What a mess. What an awful mess.”
Cheryl Burke slams verdict as ‘absolute madness’
In a three-minute Tiktok video, ‘Dancing with the Stars’ dancer Cheryl Burke criticized the Supreme Court ruling and shared her own abortion experience. “I’m saddened by the news this morning and it weighs heavily in my heart because I had an abortion when I was 18 and if it wasn’t for places like Planned Parenthood [a non-profit organization that provides family counseling and abortions, among other things ] I would be a mom,” Burke said.
She wouldn’t have been a good mother, and she’s definitely not where she is today, the dancer and presenter confessed. “I had an abortion when I was going through a really big change in my life,” said the 38-year-old. “I practiced safer sex, I protected myself, I used birth control, and then something like this happens.”
She was two weeks pregnant when she drove to a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic and encountered protesters holding anti-abortion signs, Burke said. That alone was traumatic. “But on top of that, the whole process is traumatic and the fact that they now forbid us women from making that choice about our own bodies is absolutely insane.”
Burke stressed that she was “happy” with her decision and has “no regrets” and “is not ashamed of it”. “I just decided to share it now,” she justified her video message. “I take this as a personal attack based on my experience. It’s so disappointing.”
Sources: Meadow Walker on Instagram, Variety, Cheryl Burke on Tiktok, Fox News
