{"id":287423,"date":"2023-03-16T12:42:57","date_gmt":"2023-03-16T17:42:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=287423"},"modified":"2023-03-19T17:59:00","modified_gmt":"2023-03-19T22:59:00","slug":"padma-lakshmi-mother-aborted-baby-accident-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/padma-lakshmi-mother-aborted-baby-accident-love\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Top Chef’ host Padma Lakshmi says mother aborted baby after accident out of ‘love for me’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Planned Parenthood of Greater New York recently held its first ever spring gala, which was attended by the likes of model Chrissy Teigen and Top Chef host and model Padma Lakshmi. While there, Lakshmi spoke exclusively to PEOPLE<\/a> about her own experience with abortion \u2014 or, more specifically, her mother’s.<\/p>\n

According to Lakshmi, her mother Vijaya was severely injured in a car crash and sought an abortion afterwards. “We were all very injured, we had a mountain of medical bills. My mother had broken bones, had a cardiac contusion,” the model and actress said. “Her heart would not have sustained that pregnancy.” According to Wikipedia, Lakshmi was 14 at the time.<\/p>\n

A cardiac contusion is essentially a bruise on the heart muscle. While the severity of her mother’s injuries is not clear, the incident happened decades ago, and medical treatments in pregnancy have, of course, made incredible advancements since then. Yet, most importantly, an intervention to save the life of a pregnant woman\u00a0\u2014 such as during an ectopic pregnancy or pre-eclampsia \u2014 is not the same thing as an induced abortion.<\/p>\n

While the preborn child may not be able to survive in such a situation, their death is not the direct intention. An induced abortion, in which a preborn child’s life is directly and intentionally taken, is not medically necessary. And procedures needed to save the mother’s life are legal in every single state.<\/p>\n