Actress Joan Collins has said that she aborted her child because, being a “feminist”, her career was more important to her than her child. Collins is best known for appearing in the 1980s U.S. soap Dynasty.
This month, Collins spoke out about her abortion on an episode of Piers Morgan’s Life Stories on ITV. During the interview, Collins asserted that a baby would have meant the “death” of her career.
“I had an abortion”, she said. “I was by then 26… I was a feminist before the word was heard and I shall do what I felt was right for me. It would have been wrong to have done that. It would have ruined my life… it would have ruined my life.”
Collins aborted her child before it was legal in the UK. The father was actor Warren Beatty, to whom she was engaged at the time.
At last year’s Golden Globe awards, actress Michelle Williams implied during an acceptance speech that she could not have won her award if she had not aborted her baby previously, as reported by SPUC.
Actress Charisma Carpenter has also recounted how noted Hollywood producer Joss Whedon pressured her to abort her baby.
“He proceeded to attack my character, mock my religious beliefs, accuse me of sabotaging the show, and then unceremoniously fired me the following season once I gave birth”, said Carpenter.
SPUC comment
A SPUC spokesperson said: “It is the actress Charisma Carpenter who stood her ground, for herself and her unborn child, who provides the world with a truly inspiring and empowering role model, as a mother refusing to give in to the pressures of Hollywood and an abusive man, not Joan Collins who sacrificed her baby for the sake of “feminism”.
“While women face undoubted pressures and media narratives telling them that they must choose career over motherhood, sacrificing a child for a career is not an act of empowerment – it is quite the opposite.”
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