The Texas abortion ban has shocked and dismayed millions across the country. And actress Uma Thurman is among them.
Thurman penned a bracing op-ed in The Washington Post detailing her own abortion, which she had at the age of 15.
Calling it her "darkest secret," Thurman spoke of the experience and why she is choosing to share it now in response to the Texas law, which she called "radical."
In the op-ed, Thurman detailed her experience of having been a 15-year-old teen actress, working on her own in Europe and getting accidentally pregnant by a much older man. She wanted to keep the baby, but after discussing it with her parents realized she wouldn't be able to properly care for a child at so young an age.
Thurman wrote:
"I was just starting out in my career and didn't have the means to provide a stable home, even for myself,"
She described herself at the time as "heartbroken nonetheless."
But she credited the decision as an all-important one for the trajectory of her life.
"...Choosing not to keep that early pregnancy allowed me to grow up and become the mother I wanted and needed to be."
Thurman also addressed the frequent charge women take the decision to have an abortion lightly.
"I can assure you no one finds herself on that table on purpose."
Thurman went on to issue a pointed rebuke of the law itself and the legislators who enacted it, highlighting the unequal way it will impact women's lives.
"The Texas abortion law was allowed to take effect without argument by the Supreme Court, which, due in no small part to its lack of ideological diversity, is a staging ground for a human rights crisis for American women."
"This law is yet another discriminatory tool against those who are economically disadvantaged, and often, indeed, against their partners."
"Women and children of wealthy families retain all the choices in the world, and face little risk."
Thurman addressed what has struck many as the law's most astonishing feature.
It allows private citizens to file suit against anyone who accesses abortion care or aids someone else in accessing it, like rideshare drivers who drive women to clinics.
"I am grief-stricken, as well, that the law pits citizen against citizen, creating new vigilantes who will prey on these disadvantaged women..."
On Twitter, Thurman's words made enormous impact on all who read them.
The Texas abortion ban officially went into effect on Friday.
Since then, two lawsuits have already been filed by private citizens against a San Antonio doctor who wrote publicly about performing an abortion.
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U.S. Mint
