Jane Russell Abortion

After her abortion, the late Jane Russell was unable to bear children and later she became an outspoken pro-lifer and adoption advocate.






Leading a wild lifestyle early on, the brunette bombshell later became a conservative activist - but not before an illegal abortion caused her to lose her fertility.

In detail at the age of 18, Russell became pregnant while dating her high school sweetheart, American footballer Bob Waterfield, who in 1943 became her first husband.

The experience, which Russell revealed nearly killed her, led her to become outspoken about abortion, denying that any circumstance - rape or incest included - justified taking the life of an unborn child.

"People should never, ever have an abortion. Don’t talk to me about it being a woman’s right to choose what she does with her own body. The choice is between life and death," Russell was quoted as saying.

In another quotation cited by IMDB.com, Russell claimed that when she found herself pregnant at 18: "The only solution was to find a quack and get an abortion. I had a botched abortion and it was terrible. Afterwards my own doctor said: "What butcher did this to you?’ I had to be taken to hospital. I was so ill I nearly died. I’ve never known pain like it."

In February 1952, Russell and Waterfield adopted a baby girl, Tracy. In December 1952, they adopted a fifteen-month-old boy, Thomas, whose birth mother, Hannah McDermott had moved to London to escape poverty in Derry, Northern Ireland and in 1956 she and Waterfield adopted a nine-month-old boy, Robert John. 

In 1955 Russell became the founder of  "World Adoption International Fund" (WAIF), an organization to place children with adoptive families and which pioneered adoptions from foreign countries by Americans.
 
It has to be mentioned that decades after the procedure was made legal in America, loss of fertility remains a common side effect of abortions: post-abortive women telling their stories through "Silent No More Awareness" frequently testify to losing the ability to bear children as a result of their abortions.

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