Robin Williams’ girlfriend had an abortion in the 1970’s. One anti-choice activist suggests his suicide on Monday may have been the result of depression over the loss of his unborn child.
Yesterday, the religious right website Life News — which claims that it has “developed a reputation for fairness, accuracy and timeliness” — published an article that posited Robin Williams killed himself after being depressed for four decades over an abortion his girlfriend had in the 1970’s.
The article, “Robin Williams: Abortion of His Unborn Child May Have Added to Struggle With Depression,” was written by anti-choice activist and blogger Kevin Burke.
Talking Points Memo published an account of the article.
“Many are aware that Williams struggled for years with serious addiction issues. However a lesser known fact is that one of those demons was an abortion that took place in the 1970’s,” Life News’ Kevin Burke wrote.
According to an excerpt from Andy Dougan’s book, “From Robin Williams: A Biography,” quoted by Life News, the actor said that he and his girlfriend decided she should have an abortion “because we were too young and it wasn’t right.”
Burke then asked if this contributed to Williams’ battle with depression.
“Is there a relationship between Robin William’s descent into drug addiction and depression that began in the 1970’s and his past abortion?” he wrote.
The writer analyzed Williams’ battle with addiction and discussion of depression, looking for signs that it was in some way linked to the abortion.
Burke included a part of an interview Williams gave to the Guardian in 2008:
“You know, I was shameful…You do stuff that causes disgust, and that’s hard to recover from. You can say, ‘I forgive you’ and all that stuff, but it’s not the same as recovering from it,” Williams said in 2008 about how he behaved while drinking.
Burke then reimagined the quote to be about abortion and wrote that “Williams may have been making a thinly veiled reference to what society tells us does not exist…his post abortion trauma and complicated grief.”
Sometime after that report, Life News apparently pulled the piece, as it seemingly no longer appears on the site.
Blogger Hart Williams notes a Google cache of the article is still available.
And here’s the article still appearing in Google search:
Burke, the author, blogs at Priests for Life, where the original article is still posted. Burke links to the Facebook page of Silent No More Awareness, “a Campaign whereby Christians make the public aware of the devastation abortion brings to women and men.” The photo at the top is from their page.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: After several angry tweets about this article, let’s be really clear. Kevin Burke’s suggestion that Robin Williams committed suicide because of an abortion in the 1970’s was disgusting. It is offensive to the memory of Robin Williams, and to any concept of decency. The New Civil Rights Movement often reports on the vile and ugly acts the religious right perpetrates on the world. Burke’s ugly and opportunistic article is one of them.Â