Alyssa Milano had two abortions in the same year.
The 46-year-old actress opened up about the decision to have the procedures after finding herself pregnant twice in 1993, when she was in her twenties.
Speaking on her podcast ‘Sorry not Sorry’, she explained: "In 1993, I had two abortions. I was in love for the first time, in the breathless way you can only be in love when you are young. It was huge … It filled every part of living. It was a joyful and exciting and powerful time in my life."
Alyssa explained that she was on the pill because she was "not ready to be a parent" and she was also taking the controversial acne medicine Accutane, which can cause birth defects in pregnancies.
She said: "I still got pregnant [despite using birth control]. It was devastating. I was raised Catholic and was suddenly put in conflict with my faith. … I had a career and a future and potential. And also, I suffered from sometimes crippling anxiety.
"I wasn’t equipped to be a mother. I chose to have an abortion. I chose. It was my choice. And it was absolutely the right choice for me. It was not an easy choice. It was not something I wanted but it was something I needed – like most health care is."
Alyssa – who is a mother to son Milo, seven, and daughter Elizabella, four, with husband David Bugliari – revealed she fell pregnant again later the same year after her birth control once again failed.
She said: "A few months later I found out I was pregnant again. And once again I made the right decision to end the pregnancy."
Alyssa did not reveal who her partner was during the time she had the abortions.
The star has no regrets about her decisions and said her life would have been very different if she did not have the abortions.
She said: "I would not have my children — my beautiful, perfect, loving, kind and inquisitive children – who have a mother who was so very, very ready for them. I would not have my career. I would not have the ability or platform I use to fight against oppression with all my heart … I would never have been free to be myself – and that’s what this fight is all about: freedom."