Minka Kelly is sharing her abortion story in the wake of Alabama passing the strictest anti-abortion law in the country.
“When I was younger I had an abortion,” the actress wrote in a Thursday Instagram post alongside a photo of the 25 male state senators who voted for the bill. “It was the smartest decision I could’ve made, not only for myself & my boyfriend at the time, but also for this unborn fetus.”
Kelly wrote that the child would have been born into “an unnecessary world of struggle” because she and the father were too young to bring a child into the world.
“Having a baby at that time would have only perpetuated the cycle of poverty, chaos and dysfunction I was born into,” she wrote.
On Tuesday, the Alabama state Senate passed the Human Life Protection Act, an extreme anti-abortion measure that bans the procedure in all cases, including rape and incest. The only exception to the legislation is if the life of a pregnant woman is at risk.
Gov. Kay Ivey (R) signed the bill into law on Wednesday evening. The legislation will take effect in six months.
Under the new law, performing an abortion procedure would become a felony offense punishable by a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison.
Kelly urged lawmakers to contemplate what happens to those children who are born into families that simply cannot care for them.
“What do you think happens to these kids who end up bouncing around in foster care, live on government assistance because the mother has no help, can’t afford childcare while she works a minimum wage job, and is trapped in a cycle of trying to survive on the meager government assistance so many of you same pro-lifers are determined to also take away,” she wrote.
Alabama is just the latest state to consider extreme anti-abortion laws. This year, Ohio, Kentucky, Georgia and Mississippi have passed laws banning abortion after six weeks, a point at which many women don’t even realize they’re pregnant. Texas lawmakers are considering the death penalty for any woman who undergoes an abortion procedure. And Missouri is on its way to passing an eight-week abortion ban.
“I appreciate seeing men speak up on this issue ― women do not get pregnant alone,” Kelly added. “Lest we forget, outlawing abortion has never stopped women from attempting it.”