For 'The Color Purple' author, it was abortion or suicide

STORY: "My first abortion was in college, and it was actually a choice between having an abortion and committing suicide. And I was very close to committing suicide. And my classmates saved me. They found an abortionist. They raised the money. They took me there and they took care of me. And if they had not, I would not be sitting here talking to you," she told Reuters on Friday (June 24), after the Supreme Court dropped its decision to overturn abortion rights.

Walker once wrote: "Abortion, for many women, is more than an experience of suffering beyond anything most men will ever know, it is an act of mercy, and an act of self-defense." Asked to unpack her words on the day the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion got overturned in a 6-3 ruling powered by the Supreme Court's conservative majority, Walker said, "It's an act of mercy for the woman who often has no alternative... That you have a life that's worth protecting so that you are able to contribute to society. So an abortion, in that sense, is self-defense."

Walker concluded by saying that age and experience made her free to speak out, "I have a lot less to lose than a lot of younger women and men... it seems to me... I can say what I think about this and it's wrong. That ruling is wrong and this country will suffer dreadfully from it."