# Celebrities Who Have Had Abortions **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 8, 2011, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-have-had-abortions/573893 "2011-03-08T05:34:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-have-had-abortions/573893/1 "2011-03-08T05:34:28Z")
By celebrity I mean any famous woman living or dead Without getting into the debate about it. I know that Rita Hayworth and Judy Garland had abortions. I also read Margaret Cho, the comedienne, Billie Jean King, Joan Collins and Sherri Shepherd and Whoopi Goldberg (both from “The View”) also said they had aboritons. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-have-had-abortions/573893/2 "2011-03-08T05:40:18Z")
Polly Bergen was one of the first actresses who “came out” about having an abortion. It caused major gynecological problems and she became an activist for the legalization of abortion. Patricia Neal was the reverse. She had an abortion early in her career- the father was Gary Cooper, who was married- and in her later years became a very passionate anti-abortion activist claiming it caused her enormous guilt. (I always found this very hypocritical: she had the benefits of it, for it would likely have destroyed her career to have had a child out of wedlock, and now sought to deny that right to other women.) Marion Davies had abortions by William Randolph Hearst. This is according to her niece and other women who Davies arranged abortions for with the doctor who she said “did all of mine”. Joan Collins claimed in her memoir to have had an abortion after a fling with Warren Beatty. Sharon Osbourne claims that she got pregnant the first time she ever had sex (she was 17) and that the abortion caused her major problems in carrying children to term later. (She had more miscarriages than she had children.) ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lee/32/7455_2.png) [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-have-had-abortions/573893/3 "2011-03-08T05:48:29Z")
Ursula K. Le Guin, according to an article she wrote. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-have-had-abortions/573893/4 "2011-03-08T05:49:27Z")
Sampiro-Why do you find Patricia Neal’s guilt hypocritical? You doubt that women who have abortions feel guilt over what they did? ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-have-had-abortions/573893/5 "2011-03-08T05:53:16Z")
> [@etv78](#): > > Sampiro-Why do you find Patricia Neal’s guilt hypocritical? You doubt that women who have abortions feel guilt over what they did? Not according to the latest studies. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-have-had-abortions/573893/6 "2011-03-08T05:54:01Z")
Joan Collins (supposedly Warren Beatty’s) Billie Jean King (says she had one when she was married to a guy) Maureen McCormick (claims to have had three when she was trading sex for cocaine). ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-have-had-abortions/573893/7 "2011-03-08T05:55:22Z")
> [@etv78](#): > > Sampiro-Why do you find Patricia Neal’s guilt hypocritical? You doubt that women who have abortions feel guilt over what they did? It’s hypocritical to want it for yourself, then to turn around and try to deny the same choice to anybody else. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-have-had-abortions/573893/8 "2011-03-08T05:58:53Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > It’s hypocritical to want it for yourself, then to turn around and try to deny the same choice to anybody else. Yeah, Dio, fair enough. ---
**Author:** ![Mississippienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mississippienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mississippienne)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-have-had-abortions/573893/9 "2011-03-08T06:02:55Z")
Jane Russell, of \*Gentleman Prefer Blondes \*fame, had a back alley abortion that left her unable to conceive. She adopted all her children. Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill has been quite frank about her abortion. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-have-had-abortions/573893/10 "2011-03-08T06:12:09Z")
Silent film superstar Gloria Swanson wrote her memoir when she was almost 80 in which she claimed she’d had two abortions. She said the first was involuntary: she became pregnant on her honeymoon with Wallace Beery and, per Swanson, he tricked her into drinking a “potion” that caused abortion and almost killed her\*. She later had an abortion while married to her third husband. (\*I find this extremely hard to believe. By all accounts abortifacients generally taste awful- they’re by design meant to be very harmful to your body- and I seriously doubt anybody would drink one thinking it was a Tom Collins.) Michelle Triola had abortions while living with Lee Marvin. On the topic of Rita Hayworth, she was rumored to have had an abortion by her father, who according to several biographies raped her many times when she was a teenager and they were touring together as dancers. Speaking of: MacKenzie Phillips claims to have had an abortion that may have been fathered by her father; she said she actually didn’t know who the father was because she was sexually promiscuous at the time and it was during her alleged affair with her father. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-have-had-abortions/573893/11 "2011-03-08T06:18:39Z")
Grace Kelly was rumored to have aborted a fetus sired by Bing Crosby. No confirmation. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-have-had-abortions/573893/12 "2011-03-08T06:27:07Z")
Kathy Najimy Amy Brenneman Anne Archer Erin Brockovich Cher Jill Clayburgh Frida Kahlo Margot Kidder Madonna Edna St. Vincent Millay Rita Moreno Kathy Najimy Stevie Nicks Anais Nin Jennifer O’Neill - is now anti-abortion Grace Paley Ally Sheedy Suzanne Somers Gloria Steinem Alice Walker Jill Clayburgh Linda Ellerbee Diana Mitford Jessica Mitford Grace Paley Sylvia Plath Marilyn Monroe was rumored to have had one. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-have-had-abortions/573893/13 "2011-03-08T08:02:45Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > It’s hypocritical to want it for yourself, then to turn around and try to deny the same choice to anybody else. If she had been strongly anti-abortion before and while she was having the abortion, it would be hypocritical, but if her anti-abortion feelings and activism came out afterwards, maybe she just had a sincere change of heart. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-have-had-abortions/573893/14 "2011-03-08T08:43:14Z")
I’m sure she had a sincere change of heart, but I don’t respect her for it at all. The thing is, Patricia Neal wasn’t against abortion because she felt it was murder, but because as she grew older she desperately wished she had kept her baby. But then by her logic, women shouldn’t give up babies for adoption, either. She stated that despite all the tragedies in her life (one child was severely brain-damaged in an accident as an infant, a daughter died of measles at age 7, another daughter became an addict, her husband cheated on her for years with her good friend, she had a 3-year affair with married Gary Cooper who wouldn’t leave his wife and child for her, her strokes) the \*only \*thing in her life she wished she could change was the abortion. That seems pretty bizarre. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-have-had-abortions/573893/15 "2011-03-08T14:06:49Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > If she had been strongly anti-abortion before and while she was having the abortion, it would be hypocritical, but if her anti-abortion feelings and activism came out afterwards, maybe she just had a sincere change of heart. It’s still hypocritical for her to want to change the rules after she got hers. Regretting a choice is one thing, trying to deny the same choice to others something else. ---
**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-have-had-abortions/573893/16 "2011-03-08T14:16:40Z")
Stretching the definition of celebrity, Kacey Jordan, from the ongoing Charlie Sheen circus, among other ventures, tweeted about hers. Sheen was not believed by her to be the father. [http://twitter.com](http://twitter.com) misskaceyjordan (Broken link…Given her occupation, it’s not always SFW.) ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-have-had-abortions/573893/17 "2011-03-08T14:27:44Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > It’s still hypocritical for her to want to change the rules after she got hers. Regretting a choice is one thing, trying to deny the same choice to others something else. I surrender to NO one in my hatred for hypocrites (it should be a standard requirement for a political reporter) but I honestly can’t see this as hypocrisy. I can empathize with someone who goes through with something, then later realizes the consequences of that act and decides, through greater experience, to oppose it. It’s not hypocrisy in that stretch but rather a greater ability to understand the issue and relate to it that leads to the political position. It’s not like recovering alcoholics shouldn’t preach against the evils of alcohol, right? They’re fully justified in being against alcohol consumption (in some cases even to advocating prohibition again) and attempting to prevent others from doing so due to their experiences. ---
**Author:** ![Spit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/76d3ee/32.png) [@Spit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spit)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-have-had-abortions/573893/18 "2011-03-08T14:32:42Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > It’s still hypocritical for her to want to change the rules after she got hers. Regretting a choice is one thing, trying to deny the same choice to others something else. So a former heroin addict speaking out against using is hypocritical then? ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-have-had-abortions/573893/19 "2011-03-08T14:38:55Z")
Myra Friedman wrote a biography of Janis Joplin “Buried Alive” that says the singer had an abortion, and was so devastated by the experience that she did call herself a murderer. Monica Lewinsky admitted in her memoir that she had an abortion from another affair with a married White House insider (NOT Bill!) Gloria Steinem claims having had an abortion as one of the key events that caused her to become an activist for feminist causes. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-have-had-abortions/573893/20 "2011-03-08T14:50:47Z")
What is. . .a Jeopardy category that would raise a few eyebrows. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-who-have-had-abortions/573893.md?page=2)