Jemima Kirke shares abortion story: 'I didn't want to put a child or myself through a lifetime of that chaos'

The Girls actress filmed a video in support of the Centre for Reproductive Rights' campaign 'Draw the Line' in the US

Jemima Kirke has opened up about the difficult decision she made to have an abortion when she was at college.

The Girls actress, 29, who plays Jessa Johansson in the Lena Dunham comedy, had her pregnancy terminated in 2007, but has only spoken publically about it now because of the stigma of “embarrassment” surrounding the issue.

In a video shot in support of ‘Draw The Line’, a campaign by the Centre for Reproductive Rights' in the US, she said: "I wasn't sure that I wanted to be attached to this person for the rest of my life.

"My life was just not conducive to raising a happy, healthy child. So, I decided to get an abortion."

She also described having to go through the painful procedure without anaesthetic because she couldn’t afford it.

"I did have to empty my checking account - what I had in there - and get some from my boyfriend," she recalled.

"I realised if I didn't take the anaesthesia, I would be able to afford to do this. And the anaesthesia wasn't that much more, but when you're scrounging for however many hundreds of dollars, it is a lot.

"I just didn't have it. It's the obstacle and this stigma that makes these things not completely available... But there are little hoops we have to jump through to get them."

She later posted the following on Twitter, by way of clarifying her account:

It promotes the federal Women’s Health Protection Act, a bill that would ban states from restricting reproductive health care providers that block access to safe, legal abortion services and interfere with personal decision making.

Read more about it here.