Award-winning actress and long-time advocate of abortion rights, Anne Hathaway commented on the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade on Tuesday’s episode of “The View” while recounting her personal experience with abortion.
Following the decision to overturn abortion, Hathaway uploaded an abortion-themed post on her Instagram account to honor the 16th anniversary of her film “The Devil Wears Prada.”
“Looking back on photos of this beloved film that shaped the lives and careers of so many—mine included—I am struck by the fact that the young female characters in this movie built their lives and careers in a country that honored their right to have choice over their own reproductive health,” the actress wrote back in June.
Joy Behar asked her why did Hathaway write that message.
“Because we’re in the fight,” Hathaway responded. “We’re in the fight every day. We’re in the fight every minute.”
“Some 16-year-olds life has been irrevocably changed because of the current overturning of Roe v. Wade. And in this character [Devil wears Prada], I played a young woman who was starting out her career. And when you are a young woman starting out your career, your reproductive destiny matters a great deal.”
“I think about it all the time. I think we all think about it all the time and what its implications are and what it means to live in a country that puts us in this position again. And so if I were to play that role nowadays, I couldn’t take that for granted. I couldn’t take that freedom for granted, the freedom of choice.”
“My own personal experience with abortion and I don’t think we talk about this enough, abortion can be another word for mercy,” Hathaway said.
“We don’t know. We know that no two pregnancies are alike and it follows that no two lives are alike. That follows that no two conceptions are alike. So how can we have a law? How can we have a point of view on this that says we must treat everything the same? And where I come at it from is when you allow for choice, you allow for flexibility, which is what we need in order to be human.”
Watch the video below:
Her statements about abortion have drawn some criticism.
One Twitter user said, “To be human” should not mean killing a baby you irresponsibily made, so you can have nicer things. Being a woman/mother, invariably means sacrificing everything to protect your child. It’s why mothers are so revered. No wonder mother/womanhood is no longer respected.”
“Abortion is another word for LACK of “mercy”. To promote the merciless destruction of a developing human trapped in the womb is as far from a conversation about “practicality” or morality as one can get,” another said.
“So many women speak out loudly in support of abortion in an attempt to drown out the quiet voice in their heads condemning them for murdering their own innocent offspring.”
“Being human is not killing an innocent baby.”
“The baby is a HUMAN! Therefore, it has human rights, too!”
“Anne how about mercy for the baby who wants to live.”