Award-winning actor Sally Field has shared the horrific story of her experience with abortion as a teenager on social media.
Field, who is best known for her role in the 60s sitcom Gidget, is throwing her support behind Kamala Harris and Tim Walz ahead of the 2024 US election.
“Everyone, please, pay attention to this election, up and down the ballot, in every state – especially those with ballot initiatives that could protect reproductive freedom,” Field wrote in the caption of her video, posted on Instagram.
“PLEASE. WE CAN’T GO BACK!!
“So here is my story. I’d be honored if you’d tell me yours, if you can.”
Field became pregnant when she was 17 during the 1960s, when abortion was illegal in her home state of California.
“It was during a time even worse than now,” she said, “a time when contraception was not readily available and only if you were married.
“I had no choices in my life, I didn’t have a lot of family support or finances… (I was) too naive to know anything… I didn’t know what was going to be.”
Field then made the decision to terminate the pregnancy. Accompanied by a family friend who was a doctor, she drove to Tijuana in Mexico to undergo the abortion, illegally.
Field, who was feeling “very shamed” about it, recalled the “horrific” story in the video.
“It was beyond hideous and life-altering,” she said. “I had no anesthetic. I felt everything – how much pain I was in.”
The technician performing the procedure gave Field “a few puffs of ether” which numbed her legs and arms before, horrendously, he began molesting her.
“It was this absolute pit of shame,” Field said.
Following the awful incident, Field described how “something glorious outside of ourselves” led her to something that would change her life forever. After several auditions, she landed the role of Gidget in the 1960s sitcom.
Field described Gidget as the “quintessential all-American girl next door”, and said that “in reality, I was”.
“Because so many young women in my generation of women were going through this. These are the things women are going through now.”
Field’s story is the reason she is endorsing Kamala Harris as the next president of the US, who has spoken strongly about restoring abortion rights in the country throughout her election campaign.
“(I) can’t understand how you can go back to that and do that to our little girls and our young women and not have respect and regard for their health,” Field said.
“We can’t go back. We can’t go back. We have to all stand up and fight.”
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