Ashley Judd opens up about her decision to get an abortion
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
Ashley Judd continues to take a strong stance in the pro-choice movement as a three-time rape survivor.
Judd, 50, shared at a Women in the World panel discussion Thursday that one of the times she was raped, she became pregnant.
“I’m very thankful I was able to access safe and legal abortion,” she told moderator Katie Couric and the audience. “Because the rapist, who is a Kentuckian, as am I, and I reside in Tennessee, has paternity rights in Kentucky and Tennessee. I would’ve had to co-parent with a rapist.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
Couric noted that Judd was one of 50 Hollywood actors who boycotted Georgia’s Living Infants Fairness and Equality Act, also known as the “heartbeat” bill. The legislation bans abortions after a heartbeat is detected, which can be as early as six weeks into a pregnancy.
“Democracy starts with our skin,” Judd, who is also a #MeToo advocate, said at the panel. “We’re not supposed to regulate what we choose to do with our insides.”
In March, Alyssa Milano tweeted the full list of actors who have signed on to oppose the bill, which included both men and women in Hollywood like Judd, David Arquette, Debra Messing, Mandy Moore, Amy Schumer, Ben Stiller and Don Cheadle.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
This article originally appeared in the New York Post.