LGBTQ+ Celebrities & Allies Who Have Shared Abortion Stories

The LGBTQ+ community is currently outraged as they react to the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Estimates indicate that nearly a million Americans seek out safe and healthy abortions every year. Each of those accounts plays an equally important role in our ongoing struggle for bodily freedom and equality for everyone – a struggle that the nation’s highest court set back almost literally 50 years today. Most of these experiences are stories that the general public will rarely hear about.

In the past few years, more and more prominent celebrities and influencers – including a gamut of queer stars – have come out with their own testimonials on the importance of abortion access in their own lives. These are not, as some schlocky outlets labeled them at the time, “abortion confessions.” Rather, they’re simply frank and honest assessments of the state of healthcare in the U.S.

For some, choosing to have an abortion was a difficult and deeply personal choice. Others say that they regard it as no more or less significant than any other decision they’ve made about their own health and bodies.

Some voices in our culture are louder than the rest, but every person’s body is equal in its necessity of care and right to privacy.

Scroll through to find out which LGBTQ+ celebrities and allies have shared their own experiences getting an abortion.

Jameela Jamil

In 2019, TV star Jameela Jamil took to Instagram to protest a Georgia anti-abortion law, testifying that her own abortion was “the best decision I have ever made” and calling abortion bans “inhumane.”

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Jameela Jamil (@jameelajamil)

Phoebe Bridgers

In response to the leaked report that the Surpreme Court was poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, Grammy-nominated singer Phoebe Bridgers testified about a recent abortion via Twitter. Bridgers described her visit to Planned Parenthood as: “It was easy. Everyone deserves that kind of access.”

Keke Palmer

Emmy-winning recording artist, Hustlers actress, and Legengedary judge Keke Palmer referenced her own abortion on Twitter in 2019. She also took to social media to protest a new law in Alabama. Alas, Palmer later deleted the reference, saying that Twitter was too limited a medium to express her feelings thoroughly.

Billie Jean King

Tennis legend Billie Jean King’s personal abortion account not only predates social media but actually predates the Roe v. Wade decision itself. King wrote in the Washington Post last year about the perils of seeking safe abortion access in a pre-Roe world.

Tess Holliday

Tess Holliday, a pansexual model famous for her body-positive activism, also took advantage of social media to share her own testimony in 2019. She revealed that she’d recently had an abortion, noting that she already had two children and had made the family planning decision not to give birth again. “Do I regret it or question my choice? Not at all,” Holliday assured followers.

Hannah Gadsby

Comedian Hannah Gadsby told Variety in 2019 that she’d had an abortion after suffering sexual assault. “I would have ended up dead” if forced to go through with the pregnancy, Gadsby predicted, adding: “How is that pro-life?”

Jex Blackmore

Detroit-based performance artist Jex Blackmore made their personal health decisions very public, starting with the 2015 piece Unmother that documented their abortion procedure from the moment they discovered their pregnancy. In February 2022, Blackmore swallowed abortifacient medication on camera in the middle of a Fox News interview with the words, “It’s literally this easy.”

Jo Ellen Pellman

Following the U.S. Supreme Court officially overturning Roe v. Wade on Friday, June 24, out actor Jo Ellen Pellman shared her abortion story on Instagram. The Prom star implored her followers to donate to Planned Parenthood, which she says saved her life.

“I took this picture on June 12, 2019– 6 days after I had the abortion that gave me my life back. I was 23. I got a fresh haircut to remind myself that I was finally ‘me’ again, that just like no one could tell me what to do with my hair, NO ONE could tell me what to do with my body,” she wrote.