Britney Spears’ long-awaited memoir The Woman in Me was released on Oct. 24 and sold over 1.1 million copies in the first week. Exactly 25 years prior, she had danced and backflipped her way into our hearts in a schoolgirl outfit with her debut single, “... Baby One More Time.”
Britney was the most successful pop star of her time. (Do you know where you were when she danced around the stage with a giant yellow python on her shoulders as she sang “I’m A Slave 4 U?” I do.)
Sadly, several years into her illustrious career, she was knocked down from her pedestal in a string of embarrassing headlines, including one that detailed a supposed mental break during which she shaved her head. Soon after, she entered a conservatorship run by her father that lasted for 13 years.
An army of fans spearheaded the #FREEBRITNEY movement, highlighting the unethical aspects of the conservatorship, which the court terminated in 2021. Finally able to use her voice, she announced that a memoir was coming. One of the bombshells that dropped a week ahead of the book release was that she had an abortion after an unplanned pregnancy with N*Sync heartthrob Justin Timberlake. Born in 1987, I was the key demographic of a Britney fan, and I’ve followed her closely throughout the years. I’m also an abortion rights advocate, so this information, to say the least, was my Roman Empire.
One in four women (and other uterus havers) will have an abortion. Still, it’s rare for folks to share their experiences publicly, or at all. Britney Spears, one of the most recognizable women alive, sharing her abortion story is a tectonic shift in the way we talk about abortion.
And people have been talking about abortion a lot since the reversal of Roe v. Wade. Voters turned out for the 2022 general election in droves specifically because of abortion. Some folks even dubbed it "Roevember." We can be sure this issue will turn people out in 2024, too.
Most recently, the results of the 2023 general election showed that abortion access is still a vital concern in Pennsylvania voters' minds. Voters, for example, didn’t end up supporting Republican Carolyn Carluccio, candidate for state Supreme Court, who received endorsements from the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation and the Pro-Life Coalition of PA, then erased her anti-choice beliefs from her website, instead electing Democrat Daniel McCaffery. This victory reinforces the Democratic majority for the court, now 5-2, and strengthens the court's position as a stopgap against attempts to ban or restrict abortion access.
It’s an encouraging sign that Republicans are becoming aware that anti-choice messaging does not win elections in a post-Roe era, but that remaining silent on the issue doesn't work either.
We saw this "mum's the word" strategy play out unsuccessfully here in Allegheny County. When asked about his abortion stance on the campaign trail, county executive candidate Joe Rockey sidestepped questions by saying that his role wouldn’t deal with abortion policy. (He also reiterated the response that we hear from many male Democratic legislators, who straddle the issue by saying they are "personally against abortion,” as if that matters, because they could never personally become pregnant.) Our county has the only two free-standing abortion clinics in Western Pennsylvania, so Rockey's retort that this wasn't a county issue rang hollow.
Women and other pro-choice voters across the country are doing everything they can to have their voices heard and elect politicians who understand where the power should lie — with the individual.
Britney has done the same with her groundbreaking memoir. With significant vulnerability and detail, Britney unleashed her power and her voice on a topic that causes far too many to be trapped inside walls of shame and secrecy. In The Woman in Me, she writes:
“Abortion was something I never could have imagined choosing for myself, but given the circumstances, that is what we did.”
“I don't know if that was the right decision. If it had been left up to me alone, I never would have done it. And yet Justin was so sure that he didn't want to be a father.”
“We also decided on something that in retrospect wound up being, in my view, wrong, and that was that I should not go to a doctor or to a hospital to have the abortion. It was important that no one find out about the pregnancy or the abortion, which meant doing everything at home.”
“On the appointed day, with only Felicia and Justin there, I took the little pills. Soon I started having excruciating cramps. I went into the bathroom and stayed there for hours, lying on the floor, sobbing and screaming. They should've numbed me with something, I thought. I wanted some kind of anesthesia. I wanted to go to the doctor. I was so scared. I lay there wondering if I was going to die.”
“I kept crying and sobbing until it was all over. It took hours, and I don't remember how it ended, but I do, twenty years later, remember the pain of it, and the fear.”
Dr. Colleen Krajewski, an abortion provider in Pittsburgh, has seen thousands of patients over the years. I sat with her to ask what she thought of Britney’s experience.
“To be frank, her story is quite average. For patients generous enough to share their stories with me, their circumstances are not such that they could continue their pregnancy. It’s not all bad or all good. It’s complex.”
If Britney had continued the pregnancy, she would have done so alone with no support from her partner. While Justin didn’t force her to have her abortion, he did take away her ability to have and raise a baby how she wanted to.
Krajewski also offered insight into why her abortion itself was so traumatic: “There is a lot of data that show that the best abortion one can have is the abortion they want. The choice between a medical and surgical abortion is very personal. People know themselves and what method is right for them. Britney wasn’t given the option to have a surgical abortion. She was forced to have a medical abortion at home. She didn’t have the abortion she wanted: to be sedated at a doctor’s office. She had an abortion she didn’t want in a manner she didn’t choose, which was the worst possible outcome in this situation. That is traumatic.” Sadly, Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake, the pop stars, were prioritized over Britney, the person.
Britney’s abortion experience, in many ways, reminds me of what I said at the post-Roe rally on June 24, 2023. Although I’ve shouted my abortion story from the rooftops for years, on this day, I told it differently:
"Storytelling is such a powerful tool. Storytelling changes hearts and minds. But when I share my abortion story now, I don't do it to try to spark empathy with anti-choice folks. I share it because smashing stigma is important and creates space for others to share. I don't have a ‘good’ abortion story. I was not raped. It was not medically necessary at that point. I found myself pregnant, and I didn't want to be. My life was not at risk, but my abortion still saved my life. And abortion saves lives every single day. We must be loud, unapologetic, and not lean on heartbreaking stories to get people to empathize."
Shortly after, I received a message from a stranger. "I saw you speak at the rally on Friday. When you said, ‘I had an abortion, and I don't have a good abortion story,’ it opened a door in my head." She'd kept her abortion secret for over 30 years and said hers also wasn't a "good abortion" story. "You gave me the courage to start talking about it. Since I outed myself, I have had so many beautiful interactions with people that I never would have had!"
Abortion storytelling is a powerful stigma-smashing tool, regardless of the storyteller. But Britney Spears isn't just some woman who spoke at a rally. She's Britney freaking Spears, a ubiquitous figure and the definitive Millennial pop star.
Britney writes, “There have been so many times when I was scared to speak up because I was afraid somebody would think I was crazy. But I've learned that lesson now, the hard way. You have to speak about the thing that you're feeling, even if it scares you. You have to tell your story. You have to raise your voice.”
Britney didn’t need to include her abortion in this book, but I’m grateful that she did, and I know many others out there feel the same.
