Rita Moreno has shared the chilling details of a botched abortion she underwent prior to the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.
The legendary actor's comments come after the US Supreme Court voted to overturn the near-50-year-old landmark decision that granted women in the country the right to terminate a pregnancy.
Justices voted 5-4 in favor of the decision, with Justice Samuel Alito writing in his majority opinion on Friday: "Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences. And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division."
As social media is being flooded with stories and arguments of those both for and against Friday's ruling, 90-year-old West Side Story star Rita Moreno has reflected on the botched abortion she endured prior to Roe v. Wade.
Speaking to Variety on Friday (June 24), Moreno recalled how she - through the help of some friends - was able to find a "real doctor" who would perform an abortion on her for $500.
"He was a real doctor — Marlon paid him $500 — as opposed to something in a back alley."
Marlon refers to Moreno's then-boyfriend, Marlon Brando.
Horrifically, after returning home from the procedure, Moreno started bleeding.
"Marlon took me to the hospital," she said. "I had what they told me was a 'disturbed pregnancy.'"
Essentially, the doctor the celebrity couple paid did not complete the abortion.
"The doctor didn't do anything really, except make me bleed," she said. "In other words, he didn't do it right. I didn't know it then, but I could have died. What a mess. What a dreadful mess."
When Roe v. Wade was first recognized back in 1973, Moreno recalls feeling "jubilant". After yesterday's decision, she says she is "depressed".
"Hilary Clinton warned everybody about this," she told Variety. "I'm not shocked because I saw it coming but I'm stunned."
Focusing on the more extreme - and desperate - cases of abortion, Moreno continued: "I think about the young girls. Taking it to the most extreme, girls who get pregnant because of rape or incest. Unfair isn't a strong enough word, but it's unfair."
Moreno's comments come as many people are taking to social media to share the message "you can't ban abortion, you can only bad safe abortion."
On Friday evening, President Joe Biden said of the SCOTUS' decision: "The court is literally taking America back 150 years."
"This fall, Roe is on the ballot," Biden continued. "Personal freedoms are on the ballot. The right to privacy, liberty, equality – they’re all on the ballot."
"I believe Roe v. Wade was the correct decision," Biden said.
The 79-year-old president also pledged to protect any woman who needs to travel to another state in order to obtain an abortion.
"If any state or local official, high or low, tries to interfere with a woman's exercise of her basic right to travel, I will do everything in my power to fight that deeply unAmerican attack," he said.
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