'Girls' Star Jemima Kirke Opens Up About Past Abortion

It was important for the actress to share her story.

ByABC News
April 14, 2015, 12:27 PM
Jemima Kirke attends HBO's Official Golden Globe Awards After Party at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, Calif.
Jemima Kirke attends HBO's Official Golden Globe Awards After Party at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, Calif.
FilmMagic/Getty Images

— -- For "Girls" star Jemima Kirke, it was important to share her abortion story.

In a new PSA for the Center for Reproductive Rights' Draw the Line campaign, Kirke tells her story that happened in 2007 with a past boyfriend.

"I wasn't sure that I wanted to be attached to this person for the rest of my life," she explains in the video. "My life was just not conducive to raising a healthy, happy child."

Because she didn't feel it was fair for the child, she decided to abort the baby. She says she couldn't tell her mother, so she paid for it out of pocket.

But this meant she didn't take the anesthesia, so she could afford it.

"It wasn't that much more, but when you are scrounging for how many hundreds of dollars, it is a lot," she said. "We do have free choice and we are able to do whatever we want, but there's little hoops we have to jump through."

“Jemima Kirke’s deeply moving and personal story highlights the role that shame and stigma play in preventing women from seeking the health care that is best for themselves and their families. Many women like Jemima will also forgo the health care that is best for them simply because they are unable to afford it," said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights.

Kirke added that "reproductive issues should be something that women should be able to talk about freely ... I still see that today, I still see shame around terminating pregnancies."

For this reason, she has always been open about her story, she says.

Kirke, 29, now is mother to two daughters, 8 and 4 years old. She married Michael Mosberg in 2009.

"I would love if when they are older and in their teens or twenties, that the political issues surrounding their bodies, were not there anymore," she said.