In her soon-to-be-released memoir, Thicker Than Water, Kerry Washington discusses her earlier decision to have an abortion early in her career, saying that she purposely kept it a secret to safeguard her career.

Kerry discussed her profession in great depth in her upcoming book, opening up about how soon after appearing in Save the Last Dance in 2001, she became unexpectedly pregnant, giving birth to an abortion.

The performer acknowledged that she was extremely ashamed of her choice at the moment.

She also admitted that having spent her adolescent years lecturing people about sexual health made her feel even more uneasy.

Washington also said that in an effort to safeguard her privacy, she provided doctors a false name because she was concerned about how the abortion would affect her job.

Kerry Washington Discusses Past Abortion

When discussing the earlier choice with People, the actress stated, “It’s just so important to me that abortion is not a bad word, and that my abortion is not another thing on the list of things that I’m ashamed of.

“This story had so much to do with my understanding of myself and the world as my career unfolded.”

Washington went on, “We’re at a moment where it’s really important to be telling the truth about our reproductive choices because some of those choices are being stripped away from us.”

Washington acknowledged that she was somewhat apprehensive to include the subject of her abortion in her upcoming memoir at other points in her chat with People.

“I struggled a lot in the beginning with whether or not to include my abortion story,” the film star furthered. “At first I wasn’t really sure how it fit into this story of my life. But I started to feel like it was really important for me to share this.”

Thicker Than Water, Kerry Washington’s autobiography, will be out for purchase on September 26.

Image Credit: Raymond Hall / Contributor | Getty Images

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