Sally Field recalls her 'vile' illegal abortion at age 17 and urges voters to support Kamala Harris | Sally Field

Sally Field has spoken out about the “vile” and “traumatic” illegal abortion she had as a 17-year-old in 1964 as she urged voters to get behind Kamala Harris in the upcoming US presidential election.

The Oscar-winning actress first revealed her abortion in her 2018 memoir “In Pieces,” but wrote in the caption of her video shared on Instagram that she was “so hesitant to do this and tell my terrible story “.

“It was at a time even worse than now,” she wrote. “A time when contraception was not readily available and only if you were married. But I feel like so many women of my generation have gone through similar, traumatic events, and I feel stronger when I think about them. I believe that, like me, they want to fight for their grandchildren and all the young women in this country.”

In the video, Field said she still feels “very ashamed” about the abortion “because I grew up in the '50s and it's deeply rooted in me.” She was 17 when she underwent the procedure in 1964 — nine years before Roe v. Wade established a constitutional right to abortion that was upheld until the U.S. Supreme Court struck down federal abortion rights in June 2022.

The actress said she had “no choice in my life” and had little family support when she discovered she was pregnant. A family friend who was a doctor drove her, her mother and his wife to Tijuana, Mexico, so she could undergo the abortion.

“We parked on a really run-down street, it was scary, and he parked about three blocks away and said, 'See that building down there?' And he gave me an envelope with cash and I was supposed to go into the building, give them the cash and then come right back to him,” Field said, saying she believed he traveled with her in case she died .

The procedure was “more hideous and life-changing” and she “did not have anesthesia,” she said.

“A technician gave me a few sprays of ether, but then he took it away from me, so my arms and legs just felt numb (and) weird, but I felt everything – how much pain I was in,” she said.

“Then the situation became more dire. I realized that the technician was actually harassing me, so I had to figure out how to move my arms to push him away. So it was just this absolute disgrace. And then when it was finished they said, “Go, go, go, go!” as if the building was on fire. And they didn’t want me there, you know, it was illegal.”

She thanked her doctor for his “generosity and bravery” in risking his driver's license by taking her to Mexico, and recalled that she had never left her home state or been on a plane before the trip. But a few months after the illegal abortion, she began auditioning and soon after secured her breakout role in Gidget.

“These are the things women are going through now – when they try to get to another state, they don’t have the money, they don’t have the resources, they don’t know where they’re going. said Feld. “And it goes beyond that, and do this to our little girls and young women, without respect and consideration for their health and their own decisions about whether they feel like they're capable at this point in time.” to give birth to a child.”

In her caption, the actress called on voters to support Harris and Tim Walz or “those with ballot initiatives that could protect reproductive freedom.”

“”PLEASE. WE CAN’T GO BACK!!” she finished.

Field had previously endorsed Harris as a presidential candidate when Joe Biden withdrew, telling Variety in July that she was “so grateful” to Biden and that she supported Harris “with all my 77-year-old heart.”

Public polls have long suggested that most Americans support access to abortion, but many Republican-led state legislatures have sought to restrict access, citing mostly conservative religious beliefs.

While Roe v. Wade was overturned two years after the end of Donald Trump's presidency, three U.S. Supreme Court justices he appointed were among the conservative bloc that struck down the landmark decision, with fears that a second Trump presidency would would restrict women's reproductive rights even more.

Trump's wife, Melania, recently revealed that she is passionate about women's rights to abortion, writing in her new memoir, “It is imperative to ensure that women have autonomy in deciding their preference for children, based on their own beliefs, free from abortion.” any intervention or pressure from the government.”