- Sally Field recalled the story of her own “traumatic” illegal abortion 60 years ago, before the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that upheld abortion rights in the United States, in a detailed Instagram video
- Field said she “had a family doctor who was a family friend, and he drove me, his wife, and my mother, in their brand new Cadillac, to Tijuana” for her to undergo the procedure.
- Calling the experience “beyond awful and life-changing,” Forrest Gump The star said she “didn’t have anesthesia” during the procedure and that the technician who worked on her “actually bullied me”
Sally Field shares her experience with abortion as the 2024 presidential election approaches.
The two-time Oscar winner shared the story of her own “traumatic” illegal abortion 60 years ago, before the turning point Roe v. Wade The Supreme Court decision upholding the right to abortion in the United States. (The decision was overturned in 2022, nearly 50 years after it took effect.)
Field, 77, recalled in a video posted to her Instagram on Sunday, Oct. 6, that she was 17 when she found out she was pregnant. The video begins by saying, “I’m still very ashamed of it because I was raised in the 50s and it’s ingrained in me.”
“I didn’t have a choice in my life, I didn’t have a lot of family support or finances. I graduated from high school, but no one ever asked me, ‘What about college?’ Nothing. I didn’t know what I would be – said the actress. – And then I found out I was pregnant.
At the time, Field “had a family doctor who was a family friend, and he drove me, his wife, and my mother, in their brand new Cadillac, to Tijuana.”
“And we parked on a street that looked really messy, it was scary and he parked about three blocks away and said, ‘See that building down there?’ And he gave me an envelope of cash and I was supposed to go into that building and give them the cash and then come right back to him,” she continued.
Sally Field circa 1964.
Kobal/Shutterstock
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Calling the experience “beyond disgusting and life-changing,” Forrest Gump the star said she had “no anesthesia” during the procedure. However, “there was a technician who gave me a few lifts of ether, but then he would take it away, so my arms and legs just felt strangely numb, but I felt everything – how much it hurt,” she added.
“That’s when the situation got darker, Field said. ‘I realized that the technician was actually bullying me, so I had to figure out, how can I get my hands to move to push him away? So it was just this absolute pit of shame. And then, when it was over, they said ‘Go, go, go!’, like the building was on fire, and they didn’t want me there, you know, it was illegal!”
Field went on to praise the “generosity” and “courage” of her doctor, saying he would “lose his license if anyone found out” what he had done for her.
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“And more likely, because I was too naive to know anything,” she said. “I’ve never been out of state, I’ve never been on a plane.”
“And fate, you know, something magnificent beyond ourselves, whatever we believe in, reached out,” Field recalled. “And a few months after that, I started going to auditions. I didn’t have an agent; I wasn’t really an actor. I was doing it in high school all the time. And I started going to auditions. And at the end of that year, I was Gidget, I was essential , the all-American girl next door.”
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Citing details she provided in her 2018 memoir In piecessaid Field in her video: “What I wrote about in the book, in reality, I was the quintessential, all-American girl next door, because so many young women, my generation of women, were going through this.”
“And these are the things that women are going through now – when they’re trying to come to another country, they don’t have money, they don’t have resources, they don’t know where they’re going,” she added. girls and our young women, and not have respect and consideration for their health and their own decisions about whether they feel able to have a child at that time.”
“We can’t go back. We all have to stand up and fight. And that was the beautiful story,” she concluded.
The Steel magnolias the actress introduced her video with a lengthy caption, which she began by admitting that she was “so hesitant … to tell her horrible story.”
“A time when contraception was not readily available and only if you were married,” Field wrote. “But I feel that so many women of my generation have gone through similar, traumatic events and I feel stronger when I remember them. I believe that, like me, they must want to fight for their grandchildren and all the young women of this country.”
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Sally Field in Los Angeles on March 2, 2016.
Casey Curry/Invision/AP
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Field went on to say that the issue is “one of the reasons why so many of us are supporting Kamala Harris and Tim Walz” in the upcoming election.
“Everyone, please pay attention to these elections, up and down the ballot, in every state — especially those with ballot initiatives that could protect reproductive freedom. PLEASE. WE CAN’T GO BACK!!” she concluded, telling her followers that she would “be honored” to hear other people’s stories, if they were willing.
Among the flurry of comments on her post was one from Busy Philipps, who previously shared her own story of miscarriage as a teenager in her 2018 memoir. This will only hurt a little.
“I just love you and the beautiful family you have. Thank you ❤️,” Philipps, 45, wrote.
“Thank you. You are a brave beacon of light and hope for us all. 💕,” said Elizabeth Perkins, while Marcia Cross also wrote: “Thank you.”
If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual abuse, text “STRENGTH” to the crisis line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.
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Source: HIS Education