Britney Spears and partner Sam Asghari have announced they lost their baby during pregnancy.Credit:AP
When Spears,40,let it be known that she was pregnant,her announcement was seen by many not only as glad tidings but also as a declaration of agency after being freed from a conservatorship that had governed her life since she was in her 20s.
That arrangement began in 2008,amid concerns over her mental health and potential substance abuse,when a judge in California granted oversight of her personal life and finances to her father,James P. Spears.
Duringcourt proceedings last year that stemmed from her request that the conservatorship be dissolved,Spears testified during a 23-minute speech that the arrangement had been “abusive,” adding that she had not been allowed to remove an IUD.
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“I want to be able to get married and have a baby,” Spears said then. “I was told right now in the conservatorship I am not able to get married or have a baby.”
The statement about not being allowed to become pregnant was particularly stunning,even in a speech in which Spears also told the court that she had been placed on Lithium and forced to work against her will.
Some reproductive rights advocates said that forced birth control was legally questionable,a violation of Spears’ autonomy and of her basic human rights.