Ashley Judd was 18 when she made a decision she still stands by: she didn’t want biological children.
It all started with a conversation with a childhood friend. From then on, she believed that people with resources and opportunities could use them to improve the lives of children suffering from poverty or abandonment, instead of devoting everything to starting their own families.
Years later, she put it in writing in her memoir, All That Is Bitter and Sweet, published in 2011: “The children who are already here are mine too”.
She didn’t just talk about it. In the book, she said that for years she had financially supported children in the United States and developing countries, providing money for food, medical care, education, and housing.
Her position also sparked debate, especially because she believed that spending resources on one’s own children could be selfish when so many children need help. For her, caring for those already in the world is also a form of motherhood.
Can helping those children be as important as having children of one’s own?
