‘Scandal’ actress Kerry Washington: ‘It’s… important to me that abortion is not a bad word’

“Scandal” actress Kerry Washington opened up about having an abortion in her memoir “Thicker Than Water,” where she discusses her career as well as the decision to end the life of her child. 

Speaking with People Magazine, Washington discusses the desire to propagate the idea that “abortion” is not a “bad word.”

“I struggled a lot in the beginning with whether or not to include my abortion story,” the “Little Fires Everywhere” actress said. “At first I wasn’t really sure how it fit into this story of my life. But I started to feel like it was really important for me to share this.”

“This story had so much to do with my understanding of myself and the world as my career unfolded,” Washington explained. “It’s just so important to me that abortion is not a bad word, and that my abortion is not another thing on the list of things that I’m ashamed of.” She added, “We’re at a moment where it’s really important to be telling the truth about our reproductive choices because some of those choices are being stripped away from us.”

The strong need to justify one’s past abortion, find support for this action, and encourage others to take the same action is common among post-abortive women, though many have later found healing from that trauma through post-abortion healing programs.

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BuzzFeed expands on the memoir’s description of the abortion, reporting, “Kerry revealed that not long after starring in ‘Save the Last Dance’ in 2001, she had an unplanned pregnancy, leading to an abortion.” The outlet added, “What’s more, Kerry noted that she was so nervous about her career being impacted by the abortion that she gave doctors a fake name in a bid to protect her privacy.”

This story is a tragedy on several levels. The corporate press and radical feminists repeat the lie that women need to end the life of their child before it even begins in order to have a successful career. Live Action researcher Bettina di Fiore debunks this while discussing a Vox article that repeated the lie about women needing abortions to have successful careers. 

“Not only are these claims alarmist and disingenuous in nature, but they betray a warped ideology that defines women’s progress by the degree to which they have become like men and a person’s value by their net impact on the economy,” she writes. “But a ‘success’ that is built upon the corpses of innocent children is not progress. It’s barbarism.”

Washington is no stranger to promoting abortion propaganda. Her role in the series “Scandal” saw her character getting an abortion after having an affair, with the scene playing the Christmas hymn “Silent Night.”