Chelsea Handler is getting very honest.
In a recently released essay for Playboy, the funny lady openly admitted that she had not one, but two abortions at the age of sixteen.
Related: Lena Dunham Sends A Powerful Pro-Choice Message!
In the personal confession, the talk show host opened up about when she first got pregnant at that young age, saying that she didn’t even consider terminating the pregnancy:
“I was going through a very bad stage in my life. I hated my parents and I was having unprotected sex with my boyfriend, who was not someone I should’ve been having sex with in the first place, never mind unprotected sex. I wasn’t really playing with a full deck of cards, and when I got pregnant I just thought, Why not? I can have a baby. Maybe I’ll have twins and give them rhyming names!”
But, the Netflix personality’s parents brought her to Planned Parenthood because they felt — and Chelsea retrospectively agrees — that she couldn’t raise a child by herself as a teenager.
The blonde beauty explained that she felt much better after the procedure, writing:
“I felt parented, ironically, while I was getting an abortion. And when it was over, I was relieved in every possible way.”
Miz Handler then revealed that, within that same year, she got pregnant again by the same boy. However, the comedienne explained that she didn’t have her parents’ help this time around:
“I didn’t have the money the second time. I had to scrape together the $230 to pay Planned Parenthood, but it was a safe abortion. Getting unintentionally pregnant more than once is irresponsible, but it’s still necessary to make a thoughtful decision.”
About 25 years later, the New Jersey native says she doesn’t even slightly regret getting the abortions, adding:
“We all make mistakes all the time. I happened to f*ck up twice at the age of 16. I’m grateful that I came to my senses and was able to get an abortion legally without risking my health or bankrupting myself or my family. I’m 41 now. I don’t ever look back and think, God, I wish I’d had that baby.”
After bravely sharing her story, Chels insisted that she wouldn’t have even had the right to choose what happened with her body if it wasn’t for Roe v. Wade, and went on to slam those states that have been proposing anti-abortion laws lately, penning:
“It’s infuriating to hear politicians make bogus promises about overturning this ruling that has protected us for more than 40 years. It’s infuriating to hear them pander to the Christian right with promises they have no chance of keeping. (By the way: Even if there is a God, I highly doubt he wants everybody to go through with their pregnancies.) And it’s even more infuriating to watch politicians find ways to subvert Roe v. Wade, passing lesser laws that close clinics or restrict abortion access for women.”
And while she mentioned that Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming each only have one open abortion clinic, she doesn’t believe the iconic pro-choice ruling will be overturned:
“Once you go forward in history, you don’t go backward. That would be like the government saying, ‘Okay, we’re taking away your right to vote too.’ You can’t introduce a black person and be like, ‘Oh, I just got a slave!’ That era is over. It’s similar to what’s happening in Mississippi and some other states with gay-marriage discrimination├óΓé¼ΓÇ¥marriage equality is going to take. You can’t stop that. We’ve already made the decision, and now we’re moving on to transgender rights. And it’s a wrap on men deciding what women can do with their bodies.”
We couldn’t agree more!
The 41-year-old went on to say she understands that some people still hold onto discriminatory beliefs because they are innate feelings, and even says it’s perfectly fine for them to feel those things.
However, she stressed that it is NOT okay for those people to act on their inherent prejudices, especially in today’s society.
Plus, C.H. believes women who choose to terminate their pregnancies should be commended, rather than criticized:
“We have 7.3 billion people on this planet. Anybody who carefully decides not to become a parent├óΓé¼ΓÇ¥let alone a bad parent, which is what I would have become├óΓé¼ΓÇ¥should be applauded for making a smart and sustainable decision. I’d love for somebody to try to tell me what to do with my body. I dare them.”
Read Chelsea’s full essay here.
[Image via Chelsea Handler/Instagram.]
Related Posts
