Alyssa Milano Opens Up About Two Abortions She Had When She Was Younger

Alyssa Milano has long been on the forefront of the movement battling anti-abortion legislation on the state and national level, and now she's revealed one of the reasons why the issue is so personal for her.

In the latest episode of her podcast "Sorry Not Sorry," the actress opened up about her decision to have two abortions in 1993 when she was in her early 20s. This would have come just as she'd wrapped eight seasons on "Who's the Boss?" and was just getting ready to flex her muscles as an actress coming off of a top-rated sitcom.

According to Milano, both incidents happened within months of one another because of a problem with her birth control. "I knew at that time, I was not equipped to be a mother, and so I chose to have an abortion," Milano said. "I chose. It was my choice. And it was absolutely the right choice for me."

And that decision was not just about her career aspirations coming off of "Who's the Boss?" Milano said she was also on medication at the time for acne that can cause birth defects and was suffering bouts of "crippling anxiety."

The actress also said she struggled with the decision because of her own faith. Raised Catholic, she found her desire to abort at odds with what she'd been told to believe, though she now believes that doctrine "empowered only men to make every single decision about what was allowed and what was not allowed."

And all these years later, Milano has no regrets about the decisions she made. "Fifteen years after that first love had fizzled, my life would be completely lacking all its great joys," she speculates. She had become pregnant with her boyfriend at the time and though they went their separate ways, her life would be very different.

"I would never had been free to be myself — and that's what this fight is all about: freedom," Milano argued. "Freedom from oppression. Freedom for women to have the audacity to be equally sexual beings as men. Freedom for women to live the life they were meant to have, not just the life that is thrust upon them by a pregnancy that cannot exist in their life."

On top of that, she would have been an unprepared mother and that's something she's thankful she was able to avoid. Had she not terminated those pregnancies, Milano believes, "I would not have my children — my beautiful, perfect, loving, kind and inquisitive children who have a mother who was so very, very ready for them.

She went on to emphasize, "I would not have my career. I would not have the ability or platform I use to fight against oppression with all my heart. I would never have met my amazing husband, David [Bugliari], whose steadfast and immeasurable love for me sustains me through these terrifying times."

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