Rita Moreno scared and horrified after Roe v. Wade had passed out

Years before the groundbreaking Roe v. The Supreme Court’s 1973 Wade decision sent Marlon Brando Rita Moreno to have an abortion when she became pregnant while they were together.

“Marlon found a doctor through some friends,” Moreno, 90, recalled during a phone call Friday morning, shortly after the Supreme Court ruled Roe v. Wade had picked up. “He was a real doctor – Marlon paid him $500 – as opposed to anything down the street.”

When the West Side Story Oscar winner returned home after the procedure, she still started bleeding. It turned out that the doctor did not perform a full abortion. “Marlon took me to the hospital. I had, as they told me, a ‘faulty pregnancy,'” Moreno said. “The doctor really didn’t do anything but 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 terrible mess.”

Moreno first revealed the botched abortion in her 2011 book, Rita Moreno: A Memoir. She also discussed it in her 2021 documentary, Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It. “I can see that happening now and going back into the back alleys,” she told me. “I’m really nervous and scared and appalled that this is happening. I can’t believe some of these people are telling us what to do with our bodies.”

Moreno recalls when the Roe v. Wade became the law of the country: “I was over the moon.”

As “depressed” as she is by today’s verdict, Moreno, like so many, is not completely surprised. “Hilary Clinton warned everyone about this,” she said. “I’m not shocked because I saw it coming, but I’m stunned.”

She continued, “I’m thinking of the young girls. To top it all off, girls who get pregnant because of rape or incest. Unfair isn’t a strong word, but it’s unfair.”

After a short pause, Moreno said, “I’m sorry I’m not the most articulate today, but I’m just shocked.”

But that doesn’t stop her from continuing. “We loudmouths have to keep ourselves busy,” Moreno said. “We are many. I think what are we going to do about it? That rather reactivated us.”