Ashley Judd Defends Abortion in Mother’s Day Essay: ‘Motherhood Should Always Be a Choice’

Naomi Judd, left, and Ashley Judd arrive at the LA premiere of "Olympus Has Fallen" at the
Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

Actress Ashley Judd — daughter of Grammy-winning country music star Naomi Judd, who committed suicide last week — attacked the potential overruling of Roe v. Wade, saying, “Motherhood should always be a choice,” as she prepared for her first Mother’s Day without her mom.

“This Sunday is abruptly, shockingly, my first Mother’s Day without my mama,” Ashley Judd wrote in an op-ed for USA Today on Friday, just six days after Naomi Judd took her own life.

Her mother had reportedly committed suicide just one day before she was set to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

“She died just hours before her peers at the Country Music Hall of Fame could demonstrate to her how much they esteem her,” Judd continued in her op-ed. “She died just days before my sister and I could show her again how much we love and honor her.”

The 54-year-old actress went on to talk about her mother’s legacy and struggles, then described her “incandescent rage” at people who think po-abortion women don’t care about the children they choose not to dismember in the womb.

“My mama was an extraordinary parent under duress,” Judd wrote, adding that “motherhood happened to her without her consent. She experienced an unintended pregnancy at age 17, and that led her down a road familiar to so many adolescent mothers, including poverty and gender-based violence.”

“My mama was a legend. She was an artist and a storyteller, but she had to fight like hell to overcome the hand she was dealt, to earn her place in history,” she added. “She shouldn’t have had to fight that hard to share her gifts with the world.”

Judd went on to say that this Mother’s Day, she chooses to “honor my mama for the person she was, a mother and so much more,” and asked that others honor their mothers “by demanding a world where motherhood, everywhere, is safe, healthy — and chosen.”

“Motherhood should always be a choice,” she asserted. “Does that sound radical to you? Does that sound like I wish my sister and I hadn’t been born? If that’s what you think, I will gladly direct my incandescent rage at you.”

The actress’s “incandescent rage” at pro-life people in America comes after a draft Supreme Court opinion overruling Roe v. Wade was leaked to the press, causing many celebrities to have a collective meltdown over the notion that the ability to kill one’s own unborn child might be left up to individual states.

You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.