Sally Field is opening up about a “traumatic” experience that took place in 1964, when she was just 17 years old.
Sixty years later, the actress says she’s still “very shamed about it because I was raised in the ’50s, and it’s ingrained in me,” but she hopes her story will inspire others “to fight for their grandchildren and all the young women of this country.”
In a video shared on Instagram, Field said that after graduating high school, she wasn’t sure what to do with her life. She had very little family support and no finances.
“And then I found out I was pregnant.”
The two-time Oscar winner recalled a family friend, who was a family doctor, drove her and her mother to Tijuana, Mexico for an abortion.
“And 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,” she said.
The Flying Nun star received no anesthetic during the “beyond hideous and life-altering” 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 weird, but I felt everything — how much pain I was in.”
“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.”
When it was over, she was quickly ordered out of the building, likely because the procedure was illegal.
Field praised her doctor for his “generosity” and “bravery,” as he risked his license by assisting her.
At the time, she had yet to professionally book a job as an actor, but just a few months later she auditioned for and landed the lead role in Gidget.
“In reality, I was the quintessential All-American Girl Next Door, because so many young women in my generation of women were going through this.”
Field explained how what she went through is the same thing that women are going through today as a result of the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision being overturned in 2022.
“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,” she urged her followers.
It is extremely brave of Sally Field to share this extremely personal story with the world. It just goes to show how many people are impacted by their right to an abortion.
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