Celebs who opened up about having an abortion

​Britney Spears shocked fans around the globe when she bravely opened up about having an abortion while in a relationship with then-boyfriend, Justin Timberlake. This comes after a growing list of celebrities have come forward to share their deeply personal experience with planned parenthood. While for some it was one of the most 'agonizing' experiences, others said they had 'no regrets'. Here's a list of women who've chosen to share their experiences, and challenged the long-held taboos surrounding abortion.​

Britney Spears offered a first peek inside her highly anticipated memoir 'The Woman in Me', where she wrote that she had an abortion while dating Justin Timberlake more than 20 years ago. “If it had been left up to me alone, I never would have done it,” she admitted, in an excerpt from the book that also stated, "And yet Justin was so sure that he didn’t want to be a father."
The pregnancy was reportedly a “surprise, but for me, it wasn’t a tragedy,” she wrote, saying that she had wanted to start a family with Timberlake — it was just earlier than expected.
“But Justin definitely wasn’t happy about the pregnancy. He said we weren’t ready to have a baby in our lives, that we were way too young,” she wrote and characterized the abortion as “one of the most agonizing things I have ever experienced in my life.”

Mandana Karimi, who was a part of Kangana Ranaut's reality game show ‘Lock Upp’, revealed her closely guarded secret about getting an abortion while awaiting her divorce. The actress opened up about her personal decision to terminate her pregnancy when she got pregnant with an ace director's child. She said that their relationship became very strong in a few months and that he planned to settle down, after her divorce from her ex. However, Mandana got pregnant with the director's chil and when informed about it, he backed off, citing reason that he was 'not emotionally and mentally prepared' to take this responsibility. His reaction strengthened her decision to end her pregnancy.

Kerry Washington, in her new memoir, Thicker Than Water, opened up about having an abortion in her 20s, just around the time her Hollywood career was picking up. She shared that she felt some 'shame' and 'hypocrisy' over terminating the pregnancy as she was a sexual health educator. "I struggled a lot in the beginning with whether or not to include my abortion story," Washington told People. She revealed that she wanted to open up about her story because the right to abortion is under attack. "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."

Kubbra Sait recalled the time she got an abortion after a one-night stand while on her holiday in the Andamans. The actress, in her book titled Open Book, penned a chapter I Wasn't Ready to Be a Mother. In the chapter, she recalled how she got her abortion done a week after her pregnancy test came back positive. "I decided to terminate the pregnancy. I wasn’t ready for it. It just wasn’t the way I had imagined my life or my journey. I think I was not ready for it. I was not ready because I was not ready for it as a human being," she said in an interview with Times Now.

Paris Hilton, a mother of one, also revealed that that she had an abortion in her early 20s, because she "was not ready" for parenthood. Revealing why she kept it a secret, she said that at the time, there was 'so much shame around it." The star also advocated for abortion rights for women, saying, "Why should there be a law based on that? It’s your body, your choice and I really believe in that."

Ashley Judd, who was one of the first people to go on record and accuse Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault, revealed at a Women's March, that she had an abortion after getting pregnant by her rapist. While speaking on the importance of access to safe abortion, She said "I’m very thankful I was able to access safe and legal abortion. Because the rapist, who is a Kentuckian… has paternity rights in Kentucky and Tennessee. I would’ve had to co-parent with my rapist."