Rita Moreno recalls botched abortion before Roe, says she's 'frightened' by reversal (NBC)

[Pete Ross Junior]

Rita Moreno recalls botched abortion before Roe, says she's 'frightened' by reversal

Oscar-winning actress Rita Moreno said she is "frightened" after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, recalling how she underwent a scary botched abortion before it became legal in 1973.

Moreno, 90, told Variety that she found out she was pregnant while dating actor Marlon Brando. She said Brando arranged for her to see a doctor he found "through some friends."

"He was a real doctor — Marlon paid him $500 — as opposed to something in a back alley," she said.

After returning home, Moreno said she started bleeding and had to go to the hospital. She found out that the doctor did not correctly perform the abortion.

"I had what they told me was a ‘disturbed pregnancy,'" Moreno told Variety. "The doctor didn’t do anything really, except make me bleed. In other words, he didn’t do it right. I didn’t know it then, but I could have died. What a mess. What a dreadful mess."

The "West Side Story" actress said with SCOTUS reversing federal abortion rights could lead to women "going back to back alleys."

[roamer65]

1. Must have been before NY legalized it in 1970.

[Pete Ross Junior]

2. Most likely, but here's a bit of NY history.

They legalized it, then made it illegal again (briefly just before Roe v Wade).

This shows why it's important to have a national standard. Doubtless it would have been legalized again, but any change in a state legislature put it up for grabs. And in those days it wasn't even strictly on party lines.

[roamer65]

4. True. Nelson Rockefeller as governor signed it in to law in 1970.

A Republican.

Imagine that…

How things have changed.

[Hekate]

3. Since she's 90 at this point, I would certainly say so

[2naSalit]

5. They met in 1954...

And it went on for seven years so by 1961 it was over.