“This is Us” Actress Milana Vayntrub penned an op-ed Monday where she wrote she’s “grateful for the beautifully boring abortion” she had and that it was “no big deal.”
Vayntrub, who is originally from Tashkent, Uzbekistan, opened the piece for The Daily Beast by describing how she gave birth to her son in May 2020. As she was giving birth, she wrote that the pain she experienced felt “unfair – like an injustice.” When her son arrived “heavy as a bowling ball,” she noted that his “birth was bearable because [she] had chosen it.”
“Now that I’ve experienced a full-term pregnancy and given birth, I find myself thinking about how imprisoning it would be to go through this if I didn’t choose it. If I was forced into it because laws didn’t give me any other option,” she continued, explaining that a current Supreme Court case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, could alter the future of Roe v. Wade.
“All of us with a uterus may soon be stripped of the constitutional right to an abortion,” Vayntrub wrote. “Forced pregnancy and birth sounds medieval—as medieval as secret, unsafe abortions. And yet, here we are.”
Then, Vayntrub wrote that her birth story in May 2020 is “inseparable” from her abortion story years prior.
“Ten years ago, I was pregnant for the first time. I was living in an apartment I could barely afford with my first boyfriend out of college. We were doing whatever it took to get by. I was taking random babysitting jobs, working at a smoothie shop, and performing improv in tiny LA theaters as often as anyone would allow me on stage. I accidentally missed a day or two of my birth control, and my period was late. So, I did what countless women have done since pioneer times: I bought a two-pack of pregnancy tests, took them right there in the drug store bathroom, and buried the positive results in the trash underneath some wet paper towels.
I immediately knew the right thing to do was to have an abortion. There was no handwringing, no confusion, no sleepless nights. I’ve always had a strong moral compass—the kind that sets off blaring sirens and flashing red lights in my chest if I feel like I’m doing something wrong. In this case, all was silent. My compass pointed very clearly in the direction of not bringing a child into the world that I did not want and could not care for.
Within two weeks, I had a safe procedure in my doctor’s office, and it was no big deal. My abortion story is uncomplicated and straightforward, based on a decision that was all my own. I understand this is a privilege. I also understand that access to abortion should never be a privilege; it should be a protected right.”
Vayntrub went on to claim she’s “haunted” by what will happen if abortion rights are stripped away by the Supreme Court. Rather than not wishing the pain caused by her abortion on anyone else, Vayntrub wrote “I wouldn’t wish the labor pain I experienced on anyone.”
“I know the toll of sleepless nights and a torn body, the necessity of support, the pause it puts on your career, relationships, and goals,” she wrote. “I cannot fathom the cruelty of enduring all this plus a lifetime of childrearing if you do not want it.” She then called on pro-abortion advocates to support the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA).
In November, I reported how South African actress Lesley-Ann Brandt published a similar piece in SELF Magazine. In her op-ed, the actress wrote that she sought an abortion because she “didn’t want to be a mother” and that reason is “good enough.”
On the contrary, former child star Jamie Lynn Spears has opened up about her experience of being pressured to have an abortion when she became pregnant at age 16. Excerpts of her memoir “Things I Should Have Said” obtained by TMZ in October showed that her parents tried to convince her that becoming a parent was “a terrible idea.”
However, Spears chose life for her daughter Maddie Aldridge. She was born in May 2008. Following her birth, Spears stepped away from television for years and raised her daughter in Louisiana.
In 2020, Spears gave an interview with TODAY Parents where she spoke about her decision to keep her baby.
“I needed to step up," Spears said in the interview. "I never wanted to let my age be an excuse for not being a good mother because that baby doesn’t care what age you are.”
Spears isn’t the only public figure to reveal they’re pro-life. Last fall, country singer Rachael Lynn Woodward, known professionally as RaeLynn, released a song titled “She Chose Me” that detailed her mother’s decision not to abort her after becoming pregnant unexpectedly.
In an interview with Sounds Like Nashville, Woodward said “it was hard for me to know that my mom almost didn't choose me, almost decided that she didn't know if that was the right path for her, but I am so grateful that she decided to keep me and make that decision.”