Sally Field opened up on social media for the first time about a "horrific" experience she had as a teenager, finding out she was pregnant and getting a then-illegal abortion back in 1964.
The two-time Oscar-winning actress shared the message while voicing her support for the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz Presidential campaign in the upcoming 2024 elections, where one of major topics at stake is abortion and reproductive rights.
She starts off her message saying she still feels "very shamed" but wanted to put her experience and message out there, in the hopes of maybe helping someone who'd been through similar trauma.
"I was 17. I had no choices in my life, I had no support in any way or finances," Sally recalled. When she found out she was pregnant, a family friend, who was a doctor, stepped in to offer support and drove her up to Tijuana.
"It was scary," she remembered, being instructed to walk to a building a few blocks away with an envelope of cash, describing the experience that followed as "beyond hideous and life altering."
During the procedure, she did not receive anesthesia and could feel the pain. A technician was on-hand to provide "a few puffs of ether," but she realized that while her body was numb, she was being sexually abused during the operation.
"It was this absolute pit of shame," she added, being quickly then told to "go, go, go, go!" in fear of being caught because the procedure was illegal. The irony of that situation, she pointed out, was that later that same year, she had been cast as the title character in Gidget, the "quintessential All-American girl next door."
While praising her family doctor for his "generosity" and "bravery," Sally spoke about other women in her generation enduring similar experiences and her fear that we were heading to a situation when that would return. She continued: "It's beyond how you can go back to that and do that to our young women and not have respect and regard for their health and their own decisions."
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Alongside her video, she wrote: "I've been so hesitant to do this, to tell my horrific story. It was during a time even worse than now. A time when contraception was not readily available and only if you were married."
"But I feel that so many women of my generation went through similar, traumatic events and I feel stronger when I think of them. I believe, like me, they must want to fight for their grandchildren and all the young women of this country."
She continued: "It's one of the reasons why so many of us are supporting Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. 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. PLEASE. WE CAN'T GO BACK!!"
"So here is my story. I'd be honored if you'd tell me yours, if you can."