Beloved Aussie comedian Hannah Gadsby graces the cover of the new issue of Variety where she shares a heartbreaking story about getting an abortion after being raped.
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The topic came up during a discussion about Alabama’s anti-abortion law.
“They’re getting away with it because they’ve got into the branding really well. It’s not ‘pro-life,’” she said. “What a stupid fucking statement! I’m ‘pro-life,’ but I had an abortion. That sits very comfortably in my head as a duality.”
She goes on to say that she believes if she had needed an abortion during the time of the anti-abortion law, she “would be dead.”
“Had I been in that state, under these laws, under these politics at that time in my life, I would be dead. It’s as simple as that,” she says.
“I was assaulted, raped, and very, very vulnerable. How was I going to raise a child? I would have ended up dead. How is that pro-life? You can’t say women can’t have abortions and then provide absolutely no infrastructure to help them.”
Hannah appears on the cover of the publication’s pride issue titled ‘Power of Pride’ alongside fellow LGBTQIA+ voices in Hollywood, Billy Eichner, MJ Rodriguez, Don Lemon, Asia Kate Dillon, Jim Parsons and Janet Mock.
The abortion bill, passed 25-6 in Alabama’s Republican-led Senate, would be a near-total ban on abortion in the state, via Variety.
Doctors could receive up to 99 years in prison for performing an abortion, and the law only allows exceptions “to avoid a serious health risk to the unborn child’s mother,” for ectopic pregnancy and if the “unborn child has a lethal anomaly.”
Alabama is the latest state to push forward restriction abortion bills, as just last week, Georgia passed a law that would ban abortions if a fetal heartbeat can be detected. Two other states, Ohio and Mississippi, have passed similar legislation.
