Alyssa Milano had 2 abortions after pregnant on birth control

Alyssa Milano is the latest celebrity to discuss her personal her experience with abortion.

On a recent episode of her podcast “Alyssa Milano: Sorry Not Sorry,” the “Charmed” actress said she decided to get abortions on two separate occasions when she was in her 20s.

“It was not an easy choice,” Milano said. “It was not something I wanted, but it was something that I needed, like most healthcare is.”

Milano also said she didn’t feel ready to be a mother during that time in her life. Now, at age 46, she has a 4-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, and 7-year-old son, Milo, with her husband Dave Bugliari.

When Milano first got pregnant, she was in a relationship with her then-boyfriend and was on birth control. Although she said she was in love with her partner, she wasn’t ready to give up her career and was also concerned her anxiety and the medication she was taking, Accutane, would complicate the pregnancy. Ultimately, she decided to have an abortion.

“It was devastating,” Milano said. “I was raised Catholic and was suddenly put in conflict with my faith. A faith I was coming to realize empowered only men to make every single decision about what was allowed and what was not allowed.”

Read more: There’s evidence that women who are denied abortions could suffer from chronic health problems

Following the abortion, Milano remained in a relationship with her boyfriend, and recalled how in love they were. They continued having sex and, though she was using birth control, Milano became pregnant again just a few months after her first abortion and elected to get a second one.

Birth control isn’t 100% effective at preventing pregnancies

Milano didn’t say in the podcast which form of birth control she was using, but none other than abstinance are 100% effective.

Birth control implants and IUDs, for example, are 99% effective, according to Planned Parenthood. The birth control pill is 91% effective at preventing pregnancy, with the lower efficacy mostly due to user errors like not taking the pill at the same time every day.

A March study published in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology also found that some women have a gene that makes a particular enzyme and breaks down the hormones in contraceptives, including estrogen and progestin. Therefore, the contraceptives don’t prevent pregnancy in these women.

Milano doesn’t regret her decisions to get abortions

If she hadn’t gotten the abortions, Milano said, “15 years after that first love had fizzled, my life would be completely lacking all its great joys. I would never had been free to be myself — and that’s what this fight is all about: freedom.”

She continued that she believes the option of abortions allows women to have the freedom “to live the life they were meant to have, not just the life that is thrust upon them by a pregnancy that cannot exist in their life.”

As abortion bans and laws restricting abortion continue to pop up across the United States, more celebrities are speaking about their own experiences.