Grief holds so much dominion over a person's heart and soul. Oftentimes, it'll bleed into other aspects of life. When it's on the topic of abortion, Cheers star Kelsey Grammer holds complicated feelings. On one hand, he supports the right for a woman to choose what to do with her body. However, he also expresses deep grief over the issue, especially in connection to another tragedy in his life. Now, he's candidly admitting how two experiences with abortion still linger in his mind.
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Recently, Grammer released his memoir Karen: A Brother Remembers. It's a devastating book, one that talks about his late sister's rape and death and how the grief of that time informs so much in his life. Moreover, the actor touches on abortion of two separate partners and how he holds deep regrets not fighting harder over it. "I know that many people do not have a problem with abortion, and though I have supported it in the past, the abortion of my son eats away at my soul," he says.
Kelsey Grammer Grapples With Complicated Feelings on Abortion
The first instance takes place in 1974, six months before his sister was brutally murdered. Grammer's girlfriend at the time became pregnant and didn't want to keep the baby. Initially, he describes his willingness to keep it but also didn't plead his case very strongly either. Kelsey supports a woman's right over her body despite the mixed feelings over abortion. However, it's the methodology at the time that really eats at him.
"I supported the idea that a woman has the right to do what she wants with her own body. I still do. But it's hard for me. Still is," Grammer writes of the abortion (captured by PEOPLE). "[I] volunteered to have my son's body vacuumed out of his mother's. I regret it. That's all I meant to say. The doctor, or so-called doctors, who have executed generations of children in this manner — I have no idea how they call themselves doctors. Something about the "first, do no harm" thing. But I offer no controversy."
Grammer's second experience with abortion is just as complicated. His fourth wife Kayte was pregnant with fraternal twins, a son and his daughter Faith. However, in a tragic turn, the second fetus ruptured and never recovered. Consequently, doctors recommended an abortion of the ruptured fetus so that his daughter Faith would have the prospect of living.
"Doctors advised us his continued growth without the safety of his amniotic fluid would surely kill him and probably take Faith too," Grammer details. "We killed our son so Faith might live. We wept as we watched his heart stop. It is the greatest pain I have ever known. Kayte's scream was enough to make a man mourn a lifetime."
