Kerry Washington revealed that she had an abortion when she was in her 20s and she’s not “ashamed” of it.
In her upcoming memoir, “Thicker Than Water,” Washington shared that she accidentally got pregnant shortly after her role in the 2004 film “She Hate Me,” according to People.
The “Scandal” actress made the hard decision to have an abortion and even gave the doctors a false name because of her rising career.
Washington, 46, admitted that she initially felt “a degree of hypocrisy,” since she was previously working as a sexual health educator when she was a teenager. However, her mindset has since changed over the years.
“It’s just so important to me that abortion is not a bad word, and that my abortion is not another thing on the list of things that I’m ashamed of,” she told People in an interview published Sunday.
The “Little Fires Everywhere” star shared that she initially “struggled” to decide if she would include her “abortion story” in her book, but she eventually discovered that it was “really important for me to share this.”
“This story had so much to do with my understanding of myself and the world as my career unfolded,” she told the outlet.
“We’re at a moment where it’s really important to be telling the truth about our reproductive choices because some of those choices are being stripped away from us,” she continued.
The “Django Unchained” actress is now the mother of three children – a teenage stepdaughter, daughter Isabelle, 8, and son Caleb, 6 – with husband Nnamdi Asomugha.
Washington has been sharing several burdens she’s carried over the years, including a time in her life when she contemplated suicide in the midst of a “toxic” eating disorder.
“I could feel how the abuse was a way to really hurt myself, as if I didn’t want to be here,” she told Robin Roberts in a “20/20” special Sunday. “It scared me that I could not want to be here because I was in so much pain.”
