Comedian Andy Richter, the longtime sidekick to late-night host Conan O’Brien, recently told a Hollywood audience of his personal experience with abortion, expressing how he was “eternally grateful” for Planned Parenthood for helping terminate a girlfriend’s pregnancy in 1992.

The actor all but credited the abortion provider for indirectly enabling his successful career, marriage and “planned” parenthood.

Mr. Richter made the remarks at the Sept. 10 Sexy Beast fundraising gala for Planned Parenthood’s Los Angeles chapters, where he served as host, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Mr. Richter recounted that 24 years ago he and his girlfriend Sarah Thryre — whom he married in 1994 — were hardly ready to have kids.

“She was in New York City working three jobs; I was in Chicago jobless and sleeping on my mother’s couch. The strain of living apart, and the stress of being two young people attempting to make a living as performers and writers was really taking a toll on its relationship,” Mr. Richter said, THR reported Tuesday. “So when she called me to tell me that she was pregnant, it was not exactly happy news.”

“Luckily for us Planned Parenthood existed,” Mr. Richter added. “I drove from Chicago in my battered old Toyota pickup to be with her when she went to Planned Parenthood to terminate her pregnancy. Her choice to get an abortion was a choice that she made with assuredness. She knew that she was doing the right thing for everyone involved.”

Noting that they briefly broke up shortly thereafter, Mr. Richter explained that he and Sarah “realized that breaking up was the stupidest thing we’d ever done,” getting engaged, married two years later and going on to have “a couple kids, and a parrot and two dogs.”

“Planned Parenthood gave two young struggling people the ability to do the thing that is in their name: We got to plan parenthood. When we could barely care for ourselves, much less a newborn, we were able to choose the time when we brought a child into our lives,” Mr. Richter said. “Planned Parenthood allowed my wife to make the decisions she needed to make in order to control her body and her health, and maintain her life and her future. And for that, I will be eternally grateful.”

No stranger to political activism, Mr. Richter, a proponent of gun control, has also mixed it up on Twitter with conservatives over gun rights issues. According to the Federal Election Commission’s online database, Mr. Richter gave to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in February, donating $2,700 for the primary cycle.

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