Watch: In New PSA, ‘Girls’ Star Reveals She Had an Abortion

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HBO

Girls actress Jemima Kirke is lending her voice to the Center for Reproductive Rights in a new PSA.

In the three-minute clip, the 29-year-old mother of two reveals she had an abortion in 2007, and speaks candidly about her decision to terminate her pregnancy.

“I wasn’t sure that I wanted to be attached to this person for the rest of my life,” she confesses. “My life was not conducive to raising a healthy, happy child. I just didn’t feel it was fair.”

Kirke says she couldn’t tell her parents about the pregnancy, which forced her to empty her bank account, as well as borrow money from her significant other at the time to pay for her abortion.

She went through with the procedure at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Providence, Rhode Island.

“It’s these obstacles and this stigma that makes these things not completely unavailable. And that’s the tricky part. We do have free choice, and we are able to do whatever we want, but then there are these little hoops we have to jump through to get them,” she continues.

Kirk believes reproductive issues are a subject women should be able to talk about freely. “I still see shame and embarrassment around terminating pregnancies,” she says.

The actress anticipates the day her daughters turn to her with self esteem issues, as she describes it as another battle to be fought over the female body.

“I would love if, when they’re older, and they are in their teens, or twenties, that the political issues surrounding their body were not there anymore. They have one less thing to battle around their bodies,” she concludes.

The video is a part of the Draw the Line campaign, which encourages Americans to share their personal reproductive stories.

Supporters of the initiative are asked to sign a petition with a message directed at politicians, saying, “My word is the last word on my reproductive health care.”

The campaign garnered more than 300,000 signatures as of Wednesday morning.

According to CRR, its mission is to advance reproductive freedom as a fundamental human right that all governments are legally obligated to protect, respect, and fulfill.

“Over the last four years, access to abortion care has been shrinking all across the United States. In the South, the situation has become particularly dire,” the site reads.

Watch: Girls Actress Jemima Kirke Reveals Why She Had an Abortion

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