Kerry Washington was “nervous” about her family’s reaction to her abortion before including it in her 2023 memoir, Thicker Than Water.
“I don’t know if my parents even knew at that point that I’d had an abortion,” Washington, 49, said during her Wednesday, March 18, episode of the “Call Her Daddy” podcast. “My husband knew, but I know there were friends and family members who didn’t know.”
Washington said she was “really revealing” herself in the book, so she felt like there was no reason to “hold this back.” While she didn’t think her abortion experience would make it into the book at first, her book editor asked her to include it.
“A lot of what my abortion story is about is my personal loss of privacy and it is our right to privacy that has been taken away from us,” the actress said. “I’m not a bad person because I’ve had an abortion and anybody gets to disagree with me. Absolutely. You don’t think I did the right thing with my body? You are allowed to believe that. I don’t love the judgment, but I make room for it.”
The one thing she will continue to “fight” against is others making decisions about her body.
“Your opinion is yours, but my body, my bodily autonomy, my ability to decide how and when I start a family, that needs to be mine,” Washington added, noting that a woman’s “reproductive” journey is so “shrouded in secrecy” in society.
“We don’t talk about abortion or miscarriages or adoption or infertility or even our periods or menopause,” Washington continued. “I just think we have to take the cloaks off of our reproductive lives. Our bodies are our bodies. Abortion is healthcare. Infertility treatment is healthcare. It doesn’t have to be filled with shame.”
In Thicker Than Water, Washington recalled feeling a sense of guilt over her abortion. She explained that the questions asked at clinics can make patients feel as though they are defending their decision.
“I think it contributed to the guilt,” Washington said during Wednesday’s podcast episode. “I was at an age where I could have chosen to have a child. I was in a relationship where I could have chosen to have a child. There were lots of factors that it wasn’t a life or death situation for me.”
She added, “I just knew it wasn’t the right choice for me and that feels really specific and it leaves room for a lot of people to disagree. It can seem selfish, it can seem a lot of things, but you get this one life and I knew that this was the right choice for me.”
