Ashley Judd Reveals Why She Had An Abortion After Being Raped

Ashley Judd has a reputation for being one of Hollywood’s most outspoken actresses, and now she’s revealing that she had an abortion after getting pregnant after being raped.

Several years ago, the 50-year-old actress confessed that she had been the victim of incest and sexual abuse. Judd talked about abortion at Tina Brown’s 10th annual Women in the World Summit on Thursday. Abortion was legalized nationwide in 1973 following a historic Supreme Court ruling, but conservative politicians want it outlawed. Georgia’s Republican-controlled legislature enacted a law this month prohibiting abortions when a fetal heartbeat is found, which can happen before a woman even realizes she is pregnant. Judd and a slew of other Hollywood stars have threatened to boycott the state if the law, which is one of the most severe anti-abortion bills in the country, is passed.

“As everyone knows, and I’m very open about it, I’m a three-time rape survivor. And one of the times I was raped, there was conception,” she told moderator Katie Couric. “And I’m very thankful I was able to access safe and legal abortion. Because the rapist, who is a Kentuckian, as am I, and I reside in Tennessee, has paternity rights in Kentucky and Tennessee. I would’ve had to co-parent with my rapist.”

While Judd was able to safely and legally terminate her pregnancy, she was concerned that if Georgia enacted the law now, this would no longer be the case for other rape survivors in similar situations.

“Having safe access to abortion was personally important to me,” Judd explained, “and, as I said earlier, democracy starts with our skin. We’re not supposed to regulate what we choose to do with our insides.”

According to the National Conference of State Legislature, it is unclear if the alleged rape resulted in a conviction, which would have barred the assailant from obtaining custody or visiting rights in both Kentucky and Tennessee.

Judd, David Arquette, Debra Messing, Mandy Moore, Amy Schumer, Ben Stiller, and Don Cheadle were among the men and women in Hollywood who signed on to oppose the bill in March, according to Alyssa Milano.

Judd also spoke about the first time she spoke up about Harvey Weinstein’s sexual harassment, saying that “no one was able or willing to listen” at the time.

She was one of the first accusers of the legendary Hollywood producer to go public with such allegations in 2017, and he has since been charged with rape and sexual assault of two other women and stands trial in May. He has pled not guilty to the charges and denies having had non-consensual intercourse.

After she turned down his sexual approaches, she sued him in April 2018 for allegedly sabotaging her career by disseminating “false and malicious statements” about her “professionalism as an actor.”

“Everybody’s been talking about whether the sexual harassment piece has been dismissed,” Judd remarked at the summit, “but it’s actually going to be heard by the ninth circuit court of appeals. And what that language is about is whether or not as a producer it was criminal for him to sexually harass me. It’s not disputed whether or not he did, even he admits to that.”