Sally Field has shared a horrifying account of having an illegal abortion at age 17, as she encourages people to vote for Kamala Harris in order to protect women’s reproductive rights.
Sally, 77, has shared a heartbreaking video on social media as she detailed being molested while having a back alley abortion in Mexico as a teenager.
The incident that took place in 1964, was mentioned in the actors’ 2018 memoir In Pieces, but the star has now reflected on this traumatic experience in order to impress the importance of reproductive rights in the US.
She revealed in the video that she was driven to Tijuana by a family friend, a doctor who was trying to help her.
‘He drove me and his wife and my mother in their brand new Cadillac to Tijuana and we parked on a really scrunchy, scary-looking street.’
‘He parked about three blocks away, and said, “See that building down there”. And he gave me an envelope with money and with cash, and I was to walk into that building and give them the cash and then come right back to him.’
She revealed the experience was ‘life-altering’ and she was molested while drugged and undergoing the procedure.
‘It was beyond hideous and life-altering, I had no anaesthetic. There was a technician giving me a few puffs of ether, but he would then take it away. So it just made my arms and legs feel numb and weird, but I felt everything.
‘How much pain I was in, and then I realised that the technician was actually molesting me.’
‘I had to figure out, how can I make my arms move to push him away? And, you know, so it was just, this absolute pit of shame.
‘When it was finished, they said, “Go, go, go, go, go”, like, like the building was on fire. They didn’t want me there.’
‘It was, it was illegal. And my doctor [who drove her], I’m sure, his generosity and his bravery, because he would have lost his license, if anyone had found out.’
She revealed that months after all of this took place she began auditions and by the end of the same year she was in the 1960s sitcom Gidget, and her life turned around completely.
She concluded the video by saying she didn’t want other women in this day and age to have to go through what she went through.
In the caption of the post, she detailed that she felt now was the best time to share her story.
‘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 then emphasised that ‘we can’t go back’ and encouraged people to vote for the Democratic party.
‘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!!’
Sally isn’t the only celebrity to use her platform to put her support behind the Democrats.
Stevie Nicks and Taylor Swift both gave Harris a powerful presidential endorsement as Taylor used the opportunity to call herself a ‘childless cat lady’
The comment was a nod to Republican vice president choice JD Vance’s heavily criticised comments about leading Democrats being ‘a bunch of childless cat ladies.’
The Fleetwood Mac icon then joked that she was a ‘Childless Dog Lady’ as she told fans: ‘As my friend @taylorswift13 so eloquently stated, now is the time to research and choose the candidate that speaks to you and your beliefs. Only 54 days left until the election. Make sure you are registered to vote!’