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Uma Thurman on Tuesday condemned the new Texas abortion law as the actress said her heart was broken for women in the state.
In the deeply personal Washington Post op-ed, Thurman shared her “darkest secret”: She had an abortion in her late teens. In opening up about the decision, she hoped “some light will shine through, reaching women and girls who might feel a shame that they can’t protect themselves from and have no agency over.”
The Texas law allows private citizens to sue abortion providers and anyone else — even Uber drivers — who help a woman obtain an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. The person(s) suing does not need to show a connection to those they target. The law makes no exceptions for cases of rape or incest.
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The law taking effect without argument before the Supreme Court, “due in no small part to its lack of ideological diversity, is a staging ground for a human rights crisis for American women,” Thurman writes in the piece.
“This law is yet another discriminatory tool against those who are economically disadvantaged, and often, indeed, against their partners,” Thurman penned. “Women and children of wealthy families retain all the choices in the world, and face little risk. I am grief-stricken, as well, that the law pits citizen against citizen, creating new vigilantes who will prey on these disadvantaged women, denying them the choice not to have children they are not equipped to care for, or extinguishing their hopes for the future family they might choose.”
In her story, Thurman notes that her decision at a young age, when she felt unable to provide a stable home, allowed her to have children when she was ready and able to do so properly.
“It has been my darkest secret until now,” she wrote. “I am 51 years old, and I am sharing it with you from the home where I have raised my three children, who are my pride and joy.”
Thurman concluded, “To all of you — to women and girls of Texas, afraid of being traumatized and hounded by predatory bounty hunters; to all women outraged by having our bodies’ rights taken by the state; and to all of you who are made vulnerable and subjected to shame because you have a uterus — I say: I see you. Have courage. You are beautiful. You remind me of my daughters.”
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