Sally Field reveals she had a ‘horrific’ illegal abortion at 17

Sally Field's traumatic experience happened before the United States Supreme Court’s landmark Roe vs Wade decision. Photo / Getty Images

Sally Field has revealed she had a “horrific” illegal abortion when she was just 17.

The Oscar-winning actress, now 77, has opened up on the traumatic experience which happened before the United States Supreme Court’s landmark Roe vs Wade decision, which was overturned in 2022.

Alongside an emotional Instagram video, she voiced her support for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, Tim Walz and other candidates “that could protect reproductive freedom.”

She added in the caption: “I’ve been so hesitant to do this, to tell my horrific story. It was during a time even worse than now. A time when contraception was not readily available and only if you were married.

“But I feel that so many women of my generation went through similar, traumatic events and I feel stronger when I think of them. I believe, like me, they must want to fight for their grandchildren and all the young women of this country.

Field said in the video: “I had no choices in my life; I didn’t have a lot of family support or finances. I had graduated high school, but no one ever said, ‘How about college?’

“Nothing. I didn’t know what was gonna be. And then I found out I was pregnant ... I still feel very shamed about it because I was raised in the 50s, and it’s ingrained in me.”

Field recalled how a family friend, who was a doctor, drove her with her mother to Mexico for the procedure.

She continued: “We parked on a really scroungy-looking street, 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 had “no anesthetic” for the procedure, besides a “technician giving me a few puffs of ether”, which gave her a sense of numbness but didn’t stop the pain.

She alleged the technician was sexually assaulting her doing the procedure, which pushed her into an “absolute pit of shame”.

She added: “And then, when it was finished, they said, ‘Go, go, go, go, go!’, like the building was on fire. And they didn’t want me there, you know, it was illegal.”

She insisted that since Roe vs Wade was overturned two years ago, women are having to go through a similar “hideous” experience.

She said: “And it’s beyond, 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.”