Sally Field Makes Vulnerable Revelation While Sending a Bold Political Message
After rejoining Instagram in August to to express her support for Kamala Harris, Sally Field took to the social media platform to share a "traumatic" story from her past that's especially relevant today.
In a vulnerable post on Sunday, August 6, the 77-year-old Oscar winner described the "beyond hideous and life-altering" illegal abortion she had at the age of 17.
"I still feel very shamed about it because I was raised in the '50s, and it's ingrained in me," Field explained.
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"I had no choices in my life, I didn't have a lot of family support in any way or finances. I graduated high school but no one ever said, 'How about college?' Nothing. I didn't know what was gonna be," the Steel Magnolias star said. "And then I found out I was pregnant."
"Luckily, I had a family doctor who was a friend of the family, and he drove me and his wife and my mother, in their brand-new Cadillac, to Tijuana," she continued.
"And we parked on a really scrungy-looking 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 to walk into that building and give them the cash and then come right back to him. I guess he thought if I were dying maybe he could help me," Field added.
"I had no anesthetic," she recalled. "There was a technician giving me a few puffs of ether but he would then take it away, so it just made my arms and legs feel numb weird, but I felt everything—how much pain I was in."
Unfortunately, things got even worse.
'I realized that the technician was actually molesting me, so I had to figure out, how can I make my arms move to push him away? So it was just this absolute pit of shame," Field said. "And then, when it was finished, they said, 'Go go go go go!', like the building was on fire. And they didn't want me there, you know, it was illegal!"
Despite the horrible circumstances of her procedure, Field noted her doctor's "generosity" and "bravery," pointing out that he could have lost his license for helping her.
By the end of that year, Field's luck would turn when she was cast as Gidget, becoming "the quintessential, all-American girl next door"—which was appropriate "because so many young women, my generation of women, were going through this."
"And these are the things that women are going through now when they're trying to get to another state, they don't have the money, they don't have the means, they don't know where they're going," Field said. "And it's beyond, how you can go back to that and do that to our little girls and our young women, and not have respect and regard for their health and their own decisions about whether they feel they're able to give birth to a child at that time."
"We can't go back. We have to all stand up and fight. And that was that lovely story," she ended her speech.
Field's followers showed their support and appreciation in the comments.
"Sally, thank you for sharing. As Brene Brown says, shame dies when stories are told in safe spaces. I see you, I honor you. Thank you for your voice in a time such as this. We won't go back. Restore Roe," wrote one fan.
"You’re sharing the deepest emotional story a woman can tell. Laws on our bodies only put us in peril. Your bravery in telling your story is admirable. Sending ??#Strongertogether," agreed a second person.
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