--- title: Watch Jemima Kirke Explain Why She Got Her Abortion Without Anesthesia description: In a new PSA for the Center for Reproductive Rights, 'Girls' actress Jemima Kirke opens up about her abortion during college. canonical: https://time.com/3821396/jemima-kirke-anesthesia-abortion-video/ author: Charlotte Alter article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-14T17:17:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:56:56.377Z og:title: Watch 'Girls' Actress Jemima Kirke Discuss Her Abortion og:description: She says she couldn't afford the anesthesia, so she went without og:url: https://time.com/3821396/jemima-kirke-anesthesia-abortion-video/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9a5b5eef15a12d5e/6987eafbcd1bba8f6b6f8efb/jemima-kirke.jpg?branch=production&width=933&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 933 og:image:height: 525 og:image:alt: HBO'S Post Golden Globe Party og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch 'Girls' Actress Jemima Kirke Discuss Her Abortion twitter:description: She says she couldn't afford the anesthesia, so she went without twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9a5b5eef15a12d5e/6987eafbcd1bba8f6b6f8efb/jemima-kirke.jpg?branch=production&width=933&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch Jemima Kirke Explain Why She Refused Anesthesia During Her Abortion > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters.  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Apr 14, 2015 5:17 PM UTC  Actress Jemima Kirke attends the HBO'S Post Golden Globe Party held at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Actress Jemima Kirke attends the HBO'S Post Golden Globe Party held at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, Calif.Tommaso Boddi—WireImage/Getty Images  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Apr 14, 2015 5:17 PM UTC _Girls_ actress Jemima Kirke is opening up about an abortion she got during college. In a new PSA for the Center for Reproductive Rights, Kirke says she became pregnant with her boyfriend’s child while at college in Providence, R.I. “My life was just not conducive to raising a healthy, happy child,” she says. “I just didn’t feel it was fair.” Even though her family is well off (her father is former [Bad Company](http://www.badcompany.com/) drummer Simon Kirke, and her mother is fashion designer Lorraine Kirke), she didn’t want to tell her parents about the pregnancy, so she had to pay for the abortion herself. She scraped together the money with her boyfriend, but they didn’t have enough for anesthesia, so she got the abortion without it. “The anesthesia 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.” Kirke presents her story as an example of the various obstacles that are put in women’s way when it comes to making reproductive choices. “We think we do have free choice, and we are able to do whatever we want, but then there are these little hoops we have to jump through to get them,” she says. The actress and painter said she talks about her story in order to reduce the stigma surrounding reproductive choices, and because she wants to protect reproductive rights for her two young daughters. “I would love if when they’re older, and they’re in their teens or their 20s, if the political issues surrounding their bodies were not there anymore,” she said, adding that settling the debate about reproductive rights would give them “one less thing to battle.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3821396/jemima-kirke-anesthesia-abortion-video/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3821396/jemima-kirke-anesthesia-abortion-video/"},"headline":"Watch Jemima Kirke Explain Why She Refused Anesthesia During Her Abortion","datePublished":"2015-04-14T17:17:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:56:56.377Z","description":"She couldn't afford the extra cost","url":"https://time.com/3821396/jemima-kirke-anesthesia-abortion-video/","keywords":["Living","abortion","reproductive rights","girls","celebrities","health","actress","Painter"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9a5b5eef15a12d5e/6987eafbcd1bba8f6b6f8efb/jemima-kirke.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Charlotte Alter","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9a5b5eef15a12d5e/6987eafbcd1bba8f6b6f8efb/jemima-kirke.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"HBO'S Post Golden Globe Party","caption":"HBO'S Post Golden Globe Party","creditText":"Tommaso Boddi—WireImage/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3821396/jemima-kirke-anesthesia-abortion-video/","name":"Watch Jemima Kirke Explain Why She Refused Anesthesia During Her Abortion"}}]}] ```