Stranger Things star Maya Hawke has revealed that she ‘would not exist’ if mother Uma Thurman had not previously had an abortion.
The actress, who plays Robin Buckley in the hugely popular Netflix science fiction drama, is the eldest child of Uma and Ethan Hawke, and talked about a conversation she had with her mother before appearing on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon in the lead role.
At the start of her interview, the 23-year-old told the host that she called the Kill Bill star for advice on the TV interview, but their talk turned to last week’s Supreme Court ruling.
In a bomb blast that sparked protests across the U.S. and around the world, Roe v Wade was overthrown, ending constitutional protection for abortion.
The initial decision ensured that those who requested a termination would have access to health care services.
However, the overthrow means that individual states are now able to determine how they will regulate abortions – making it illegal for women to terminate their pregnancies in certain states.
“We have just started talking about the Supreme Court ruling, and this essay that my mother wrote a few months ago when they placed these further restrictions on abortion access, which preceded this whole thing,” Maya began.
‘My mother wrote this very beautiful essay about her abortion she did when she was very young, and about how if she did not have it, she would not have become the person she became, and I would not did not exist.
“Both of my parents’ lives would have been completely derailed if she had not had access to safe and legal health care, fundamental health care.”
“Rich people will always be able to get abortions,” she continued. “But so many people, because of this verdict, will not only not be able to pursue their dreams, but will actually lose their lives and be unsafe.”
“So I just wanted to say, f ** k the Supreme Court,” Maya said to wild cheers from the audience, before the host explained that she was ‘absolutely capable’ of making that statement.
‘Can I fucking say the Supreme Court? F ** k the Supreme Court. Rock on, ‘she added.
“But we’re going to keep fighting, and we’re going to win, like our grandmothers did.”
Uma spoke in an opinion for the Washington Post last year about her termination after a law came into force in Texas that prohibited abortions from as early as six weeks after pregnancy.
In a moving piece, she explained that she ended her child when she was 15 years old, after being ‘accidentally fertilized by a much older man’ she saw at the time.
She thought about her past and told that she lived in Europe and wanted to keep the baby, but eventually made the decision to have an abortion after talking to her parents.
‘They asked me about the status of my relationship – it was not viable – and warned me how difficult it would be to raise a baby as a teenager on my own. “My childish fantasy of motherhood was thoroughly corrected while I weighed the answers to their very precise questions,” the Hollywood icon wrote.
‘I just started my career and did not have the means to provide a stable home, even for myself. We as a family decided that I could not go through with the pregnancy, and agreed that termination is the right choice. My heart was broken nonetheless. ‘
Uma underwent the termination in Germany under local anesthesia and remembers that it was ‘terribly painful’, but she believed she ‘deserved the pain’.
She is now mother of Maya and Levon Roan, from her marriage to Ethan Hawke, and daughter Luna to financier Arpad Busson.
Uma said although the decision still makes her sad, she does not regret it because it has led her to the life she now has with her children.
‘I conceived my beautiful, magical children with men I loved and trusted enough to dare to bring a child into this world. I do not regret the path I walked. I praise and support women who make a different choice, ‘she added.
‘The abortion I had as a teenager was the hardest decision of my life, one that made me anxious at the time and that makes me sad even now, but it was the path to life full of joy and love that I experienced. The choice not to keep that early pregnancy allowed me to grow up and become the mother I wanted and had to be. ‘
Do you have a story?
If you have a famous story, video or photos, contact the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by sending us an email [email protected], call 020 3615 2145 or through our Submit Stuff page to visit – we want to hear from you.
MORE: Cheryl celebrates 39th birthday in style and delights fans with rare social media looks: ‘I think I had the best one yet’
MORE: Behind-the-scenes creation of Stranger Things’s Victor Creel and how ‘over the moon’ make-up effects team should work with Freddy Krueger legend Robert Englund
