Lifestyle Health Debbie Reynolds' Emotional Abortion Story Resurfaces: 'The Baby Died Inside of Me' at 7 Months "In those days there were no abortions allowed," Debbie Reynolds tells Joan Rivers in the 1989 clip, which resurfaced after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last week By Stephanie Wenger Stephanie Wenger Instagram Twitter Stephanie Wenger is a TV Writer/Reporter at PEOPLE. She joined the brand in 2021 as digital news writer, spanning across the site's verticals. She previously contributed to E! Online, HollywoodLife, Discover Los Angeles, Oscar.com and Hollywood.com. She appeared on air at AfterBuzz TV. She began her journalism career as an intern at Good Morning America and Access Hollywood. She graduated from Boston University with a Bachelor's in communications and received a Master's in journalism from the University of Southern California. People Editorial Guidelines Published on June 30, 2022 03:10 PM Share Tweet Pin Email Photo: Ron Galella Collection via Getty Debbie Reynolds opened up about her "dangerous" abortion experience in the 1960s. In the video clip from 1989, the legendary actress — who passed away in 2016 — told Joan Rivers that doctors initially refused her an abortion in the 1960s because it was against the law. The vintage clip resurfaced after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last week. "I had Carrie and Todd [Fisher] and I wanted to have two other children. I got pregnant, I was very lucky, in that sense, right away," she shared of growing her family with husband Eddie Fisher. "I was pregnant seven months and the baby died inside of me but I didn't know it. It just sorta shrunk down a little bit." Supreme Court Overturns Roe v. Wade, Eliminating the Constitutional Right to Abortion She continued, "And in those days, there were no abortions allowed, whether you were ill, whether you were raped, whether the child died, which is disgusting to think there is those laws." The Singin' in the Rain star revealed that she was told she had to carry the baby "full-term." "That was the law. It didn't matter," she explained. "It had to abort itself — it could not be taken from me. It's insane to think that could be." She said the experience was especially painful because she still looked visibly pregnant and people would ask her, "'How's the baby? What name are you going to name the baby?' " Singin' in the Rain Star Debbie Reynolds Dies One Day After Daughter Carrie Fisher Doctors were eventually forced to do the procedure because Reynold's life was at risk. "They couldn't leave it anymore because now the child is in the sac but, of course, finally after so much time, all the poisons and everything would have killed me," she explained. "They finally agreed they would try to take this child out," she added. "At this point now, it was more dangerous than ever." Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free weekly newsletter to get the biggest news of the week delivered to your inbox every Friday. Reynolds was "lucky enough" to get pregnant again after a number of months; however, she suffered the same experience. Celebrities Who Have Shared Their Abortion Stories to Help Women Feel Less Alone "The same thing happened. Second baby dies, just like that. And this time, I said, 'I don't want a note from Congress. I don't want a note from any of you. You are taking this baby now because I don't want to have to go through what I had to go through before," she revealed. "And they did and the law was still in existence that couldn't be but because of knowing that they almost allowed me to die because of that silly law."