Sally Field Details Her ‘Traumatic’ and ‘Hideous’ Illegal Abortion From 1964 to Urge Voters to Elect Kamala Harris: ‘We Can’t Go Back’

Sally Field posted a video to Instagram in which she remembered the "hideous" and "traumatic" illegal abortion she underwent in 1964 before her Hollywood acting career took off. The Oscar winner first wrote about the abortion in her 2018 memoir "In Pieces," but she revived the story ahead of the upcoming presidential election as a call for voters to elect Kamala Harris .

"I've been so hesitant to do this, to tell my horrific story," Field wrote in the caption to the video. "It was during a time even worse than now. A time when contraception was not readily available and only if you were married. But I feel that so many women of my generation went through similar, traumatic events and I feel stronger when I think of them. I believe, like me, they must want to fight for their grandchildren and all the young women of this country."

"It's one of the reasons why so many of us are supporting Kamala Harris and Tim Walz," the actor continued. "Everyone, please, pay attention to this election, up and down the ballot, in every state – especially those with ballot initiatives that could protect reproductive freedom. PLEASE. WE CAN'T GO BACK!!"

Field explained in the video that she still feels "very shamed" about the illegal abortion "because I was raised in the '50s, and it's ingrained in me." The actor said that her family doctor brought her to Tijuana, Mexico after she became pregnant in order to perform the abortion.

"We parked on a really scroungy-looking street, it was scary and he parked about three blocks away and said, 'See that building down there?' And he gave me an envelope with cash and I was to walk into that building and give them the cash and then come right back to him," Field said.

The actor called the experience "beyond hideous and life-altering" and said she "had no anesthetic" during the procedure.

"There was a technician giving me a few puffs of ether but he would then take it away, so it just made my arms and legs feel numb [and] weird, but I felt everything — how much pain I was in," Field said. "Then the situation turned darker. I realized that the technician was actually molesting me, so I had to figure out, how can I make my arms move to push him away? So it was just this absolute pit of shame. And then, when it was finished, they said, 'Go go go go go!', like the building was on fire. And they didn't want me there, you know, it was illegal."

Field noted that she "wasn't really an actor" at the time of the procedure. She'd go on to book her breakout sitcom "Gidget" a few months afterwards. Hollywood painted her as "the quintessential, all-American girl next door," which was in contrast to the shame she felt over the abortion.

"And these are the things that women are going through now — when they're trying to get to another state, they don't have the money, they don't have the means, they don't know where they're going," Field said. "And it's beyond, how you can go back to that and do that to our little girls and our young women, and not have respect and regard for their health and their own decisions about whether they feel they're able to give birth to a child at that time."

Field has endorsed Harris for president since the vice president officially launched her campaign in August after Joe Biden stepped down from the ticket. The actor told Variety at the time : "I am so grateful to Joe Biden for his extraordinary 54 years serving this country. The decision he made to step down is heroic and that of a great man. And, as a working woman, a mother and grandmother to a very diverse group, I support the candidacy of Vice President Kamala Harris with my whole 77-year-old heart."

Watch Field's video post below.