The British actress, who has two children with her husband Michael Mosberg, has thrown her support behind the Center for Reproductive Rights' Draw The Line campaign, which encourages women to share their experiences to break down taboos about abortion.

While at school in Providence, Rhode Island, Kirke fell pregnant and opted to terminate the pregnancy because her life was "just not conducive to raising a happy, healthy child" and she went without anaesthesia during the procedure due to financial restraints.

In a public service announcement (PSA) for the campaign, she says, "Because I couldn't tell my mother that I was pregnant, I had to pay for it out of (my own) pocket. I had to empty my checking account and get some (money) from my boyfriend. I realised that if I didn't take the anaesthesia, I would be able to afford to do this and the anaesthesia wasn't that much more, but when you're scrounging for however many hundreds of dollars, it's a lot.

"It's these obstacles and it's this stigma that makes these things not completely unavailable - and that's the tricky part, is that we think we do have free choice and we are able to do whatever we want, but then there are these little hoops we have to jump through to get them... I still see shame and embarrassment around terminating pregnancies, getting pregnant - I still see it. So I have always been open about my stories, always shared them especially with other women."