“I’m still ashamed”: Sally Field speaks about abortion in Mexico

US actress Sally Field (77) spoke about her abortion on social media. She explained: “I hesitated for so long to tell my terrible story. It was in a time even worse than today. A time when contraceptives were not readily available and if they were, it was only if you were married .” She feels “that so many women of my generation have had similar traumatic experiences, and I feel stronger when I think of them. I believe that, like me, they want to fight for their grandchildren and for all young women in this country. “

That’s one of the reasons “why so many of us support Kamala Harris and Tim Walz,” the actress continued. “I ask all of you to pay attention to this election in every state.” In the video that Field published in her post, she talks about her abortion at the age of 17. “I’m still very ashamed of it because I grew up in the ’50s and it’s deeply rooted in me,” Field, who previously wrote about abortion in her memoir “In Pieces,” explains in the clip. She had no family or financial support at the time. “Then I found out I was pregnant.”

“It was scary”

A doctor who was a friend of the family then drove to Tijuana, Mexico, with his wife, Field and Field’s mother. “We parked on a really dingy-looking street. It was scary, and he parked about three blocks away and said, ‘Do you see that building down there?’ He gave me an envelope with cash and I was to go into the building and give them the money and then come right back to him.” The abortion procedure was performed “without anesthesia,” just a little ether made “my arms and legs feel strangely numb, but I felt everything – how severe my pain was,” says Field. “When they were done they said, ‘Go, go, go, go!’ like the building was on fire. They didn’t want me there – it was illegal.” Field thanked the doctor for his “generosity” and “courage” in helping her because “he would have lost his license if anyone had found out.”

In 1973, the US Supreme Court granted broad rights to abortion. In 2022 the court overturned the decision. Some conservative states have subsequently tightened their abortion laws. “So many young women, my generation of women, have been through this. And these are the things that women are going through now – when they try to come to another state, they have no money, they have no resources, they don’t know “Where they’re going,” Field explains in her video. “And it’s unbelievable how this can be done to our little girls and young women, with no respect and respect for their health and their own decision as to whether they feel capable of giving birth at this time. We can’t go back . We all have to stand up and fight.”