Sally Field Describes Her 'Horrific' and 'Traumatic' Illegal Abortion in 1964 Ahead of 2024 Election: 'We Can't Go Back'
Oct. 7 2024, Published 12:55 p.m. ET
Sally Field is making it clear that Kamala Harris needs to be in the White House in 2025.
In a new video, which the actress posted to Instagram on Sunday, October 6, she detailed an illegal abortion she underwent in 1964 before her career took off.
“I’ve been so hesitant to do this, to tell my horrific story,” Field, who wrote about the incident in her 2018 memoir In Pieces, captioned the video clip. “It was during a time even worse than now. A time when contraception was not readily available and only if you were married. But I feel that so many women of my generation went through similar, traumatic events and I feel stronger when I think of them. I believe, like me, they must want to fight for their grandchildren and all the young women of this country.”
“It’s one of the reasons why so many of us are supporting Kamala Harris and Tim Walz,” the Mrs. Doubtfire alum continued. “Everyone, please, pay attention to this election, up and down the ballot, in every state – especially those with ballot initiatives that could protect reproductive freedom. PLEASE. WE CAN’T GO BACK!!”
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In the clip, the Hollywood starlet said she still feels "very shamed" about giving up the child “because I was raised in the ’50s, and it’s ingrained in me.”
Field was brought to Tijuana, Mexico, by her family doctor after she got pregnant.
“We parked on a really scroungy-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,” Field recalled, adding that the whole experience was "beyond hideous and life-altering" and she had no "anesthetic" during the procedure.
“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 [and] weird, but I felt everything — how much pain I was in,” Field continued. “Then the situation turned darker. 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. 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.”
Donald Trump continues to flip-flop on the issue of abortion, while Harris has been vocal about how important it is for women to be in control of their bodies.
“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.”
Field has been vocal about supporting Harris ahead of the 2024 election. After President Joe Biden stepped down in July, she said she is excited to back Harris "with my whole 77-year-old heart."