Designer Donna Karan Talks About Her 1973 Abortion

In an interview with HuffPost Live, designer Donna Karan spoke frankly about her decision to have an abortion in 1973, the same year that the Roe vs. Wade decision went into effect.

Karan said that she became pregnant while married to Mark Karan but in a relationship with Stephan Weiss, whom she would later marry. “We weren’t sure whose child it was,” she said in the interview. Karan continued:

“I said, ‘I can’t even fathom doing this,’ and abortion had just been legalized…it was that week. I told Mark about it and I said, ‘I really think this is what I have to do,’ and he agreed with me and supported me completely on it.”

The designer called the decision a “difficult” one, but the right one. “That was the life I was living at that moment in time,” she said.

Karan added that she was telling her story to express support for other women who have made, or are making, the decision to have an abortion. “I wanted to show [other women] that I’m with them,” she said. “I totally understand what it’s like. I went through it.”