Scandal star Kerry Washington said she originally “shelved” the story of her abortion from her memoir but realised its importance in mirroring the “larger attack” on women in the US.
In her new book, titled Thicker Than Water, the US actress writes about her experience terminating a pregnancy in her 20s under a false name.
“It’s so funny because in the beginning I wrote my abortion story and I omitted it from the original draft,” Washington told Bookshelfie, the Women’s Prize for Fiction podcast.
“I remember writing it one day because I would have these writing commitments, I had a friend who was kind of my accountability coach, another writer, and I would send 500 words a day or 1,000 words a day.
“So one day I wrote this abortion story, and then I thought: ‘I don’t know where that would go, that has nothing to do with this other story I’m telling about identity and belonging and figuring out who I am’ – so I shelved it.
“I actually emailed it to the friend and forgot about it,” the 46-year-old actress said.
Washington said it was her book editor reading an early draft that suggested she could not refer to women’s reproductive lives “cloaked in secrecy” at the end of the book without providing more context on her own experience.
“So I went back and tried to locate the story and realised that in many ways, my abortion story is about my loss of privacy and that the attack on abortion that’s happening in the United States right now is also an attack on our right to privacy,” she said.
In June 2022, the US Supreme Court ended constitutional protections for abortion that have been in place for nearly 50 years by deciding to overturn the landmark Roe v Wade ruling.
On sharing her story, Washington told podcast host Vick Hope: “I think it’s important for me to share this moment where I felt like I was losing my agency, my sense of self, my ability to make decisions with privacy and empowerment, because my private moment mirrors the larger attack that’s happening on women’s identities and agencies and bodies.”
On Wednesday, it was announced the judging panel for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the inaugural Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction will be chaired by Monica Ali and Suzannah Lipscomb respectively.
The winner of each £30,000 prize will be announced on June 13.