Lily Allen didn’t whisper it. She didn’t cry. She didn’t package it in trauma or justification. On a recent episode of her podcast Miss Me?, the British pop star casually revealed she “can’t remember” how many abortions she had before getting an IUD at 23. She sang about it, actually—riffing on “My Way” with a dark laugh and zero apology:
“Abortions, I’ve had a few…”
The internet flinched. But here’s the thing: this moment wasn’t about shock. It was about freedom. Allen’s honesty—and the equally candid reflections from her cohost, Miquita Oliver—cut through the cultural script we’re handed about abortion: that it should be rare, tragic, carefully justified, and always accompanied by remorse. But what if it’s just… not?
In a post-Roe world, where reproductive autonomy is under violent attack, there’s something radical in Allen’s irreverence. Not because she’s flippant, but because she’s free—and she refuses to perform her choices for anyone else.
Lily Allen Isn’t Sorry—And She Shouldn’t Have to Be
Back in 2022, Lily Allen was already saying the quiet part out loud. After joining Olivia Rodrigo at Glastonbury to perform “Fuck You” in protest of Roe v. Wade being overturned, she took to Instagram to double down.
“Most people I know, myself included, just didn’t want to have a fucking baby,” she wrote. “And that is reason enough. We don’t have to justify it.”
That message hasn’t changed. On the podcast, she restated her frustration with how media and even pro-choice communities still cling to the idea that abortion needs to be cloaked in exceptional circumstances—rape, disability, medical emergency—to be valid.
“Just: ‘I don’t want a fucking baby right now,’” she said. “Literally: ‘Don’t want a baby’ is enough reason.”
And it is. But try telling that to a society that still treats abortion as a moral confession booth.
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Honesty Isn’t the Problem—Stigma Is
What makes Allen’s comment land so hard isn’t the number—it’s the tone. She jokes, she shrugs, she treats her reproductive history as hers alone. That violates the unspoken contract of public abortion discourse: you’re allowed to talk about it, but only if it’s cloaked in regret or personal tragedy. Anything else is too “casual,” too “cold,” too “irresponsible.”
But those criticisms miss the point. What’s actually irresponsible is the cultural shame campaign that forces people to whisper about something 1 in 4 women in the U.S. will experience. What’s dangerous is pretending that only “serious” abortions count.
Miquita Oliver nailed it when she said she used to feel embarrassed to admit she’d had more than one abortion.
“Why the fuck should I be ashamed?” she asked.
And really—why should she?
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Liberation Doesn’t Require a Sob Story
Lily Allen didn’t owe us a tearful monologue—and she knew it. What she offered instead was something far more radical: a clear, unapologetic model for speaking about abortion without fear, shame, or performance. Her honesty wasn’t cold or careless—it was free. And in that freedom, she reminded us that reproductive autonomy isn’t about how much you suffered. It’s about the fact that the choice was yours.
We’ve been conditioned to measure the validity of abortion by its emotional weight—the more tragic, the more acceptable. But that framework betrays the core of reproductive justice. As Allen put it, “I didn’t want a baby” is reason enough. That’s it. End of story. No moral footnotes required.
And if her candor feels jarring, especially to American audiences still reeling from Roe’s demise, maybe that discomfort says more about us than it does about her. Because legality alone doesn’t erase stigma. Real liberation comes when we shift the language—when we stop demanding shame, stop rewarding silence, and start making room for abortion stories that are mundane, messy, funny, or fiercely unbothered.
Because if there’s anything truly radical in 2025, it’s a woman who says, “I had abortions—and I’m not sorry.”
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