Parenting

Jameela Jamil Defends Roe V. Wade By Talking About Her Own Abortion

by Madison Vanderberg
Tommaso Boddi/WireImage/Getty

Jameela Jamil celebrates Roe v. Wade anniversary with a story about her own abortion

Wednesday, January 22, 2020, marked the 47th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark case that legalized abortion nationwide and gave women autonomy over their bodies. Despite this advancement, some states are finding every loophole to block abortion access and just this month, more than 200 Congressional republicans filed a brief urging the Supreme Court justices to overturn Roe v. Wade. Tragically, we still have to fight to keep our rights, and Jameela Jamil’s powerful Instagram post about how her own abortion saved her life, is more timely than ever.

On the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Jamil debuted a new short film Ours To Tell, which tells the story of four individuals who are now living full lives because they had access to a safe abortion. On that theme, Jamil shared her own abortion story and how it allowed her the freedom to pursue her life plans on her terms.

“If it isn’t your uterus. It isn’t your opinion,” Jamil began her powerful post. “My abortion saved MY life. And MY life is my priority. And I am not in the tiniest bit sorry. I wasn’t emotionally, physically or financially stable enough to undergo pregnancy and birth, nor was I ready to go through the trauma of forced motherhood or the potentially extremely traumatic experience of giving a baby away. So I had an abortion, which was painless, quick and I have remained nothing but RELIEVED ever since.”

She then went on to write, not just about choice, but how if you want to make abortions illegal, you’re essentially treating women like “ovens to bake humanity in.”

“We have to protect this absolute right for those with uteruses. We are not ovens to bake humanity in. We have dreams, we have needs, we have lives of our own to navigate that are hard enough without this HEIGHT of oppression,” she added.

Jamil capped her post with this simple, but powerful statement: “ALL people have FREEDOM over their own bodies.”

It really is that simple.