When she was in her 20s, actress Amy Brenneman decided to terminate a pregnancy. It's been 30 years since, and all these years later she's still woefully dissatisfied with the way abortions are discussed in America.
During a conversation with HuffPost Live on Thursday about her role in HBO's "The Leftovers," Brenneman told host Alyona Minkovski that it's not acceptable for abortion to be continually "demonized" despite being "the law of the land."
The issue is important to Brenneman, who in 2006 signed a Ms. Magazine petition alongside 5,000 women who declared "We Had Abortions." The feature was a reboot of a similar petition that ran in the magazines's 1972 debut issue, and the 2006 update included celebrities like Brenneman, Gloria Steinem and Kathy Najimy alongside thousands of everyday women.
"When I was 21, I terminated a pregnancy and was so grateful, and it was not a bad experience, and I had a sweet boyfriend and a sweet doctor," Brenneman told HuffPost Live.
The shocking lack of progress since then is what prompted her to sign the Ms. petition in 2006. "I thought, 'Oh my god. The fact that 20 years later, it would be worse?'" she said. "Going backwards -- it's insane to me."
It's now been 10 years since she signed the petition, and attacks on Planned Parenthood and women's reproductive rights are still alive and well.
"That kind of gender stuff, it just kills me," Brenneman said, adding that she's among the thousands of people who were moved by a viral Facebook post comparing the difficulty in obtaining an abortion and obtaining a gun.
"I saw something on Facebook [that said], 'How about every time somebody wants to buy a gun, we put them through what we are talking about putting women through with having an abortion?' So it's like, 'Are you really sure? Are you really sure? Watch the short film on what could happen if you get a gun,'" Brenneman said. "It's like, come on."
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