The pro-life site Life News on Tuesday published a piece suggesting that an abortion in actor Robin Williams' past may have contributed to the depression he struggled with throughout his life.
The story, titled "Robin Williams: Abortion of His Unborn Child May Have Added to Struggle With Depression," surfaced part of a biography of Williams that mentions that his girlfriend had an abortion in the 1970s.
"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."
Robin Williams died at age 63 on Monday from an apparent suicide.