But she is wrong to suggest that women in the rest of the UK have any "right" to abortion or that they would not be prosecuted for the same offence of inducing their own miscarriage as the young woman in Northern Ireland.
In Williams' survey, 28percentt of women who had experienced a miscarriage reported that learning about a celebrity's pregnancy loss helped them feel less isolated, but that number jumped to 46percentt when it was a friend sharing about their own miscarriage.
As of Monday, the post had received more than 2,600 comments, many from people who thanked Van Der Beek and described their own experiences with miscarriage, stillbirth and rainbow babies.
The article garnered many responses, with readers talking about their own experience of miscarriage, and offering advice on how to cope.
Other celebrities, including singer Halsey, have come forward with their own, personal stories about miscarriage.
When she reunited with former co-workers who had become mothers, they shared news of the deaths and illnesses of other coworkers and their own experiences of infertility and miscarriages.
Abortion remains a criminal offence under the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act, which states that a woman who tries to "procure her own miscarriage" could be subject to a long prison sentence.
Earlier this year a woman who had induced her own miscarriage by taking abortion pills obtained over the internet was found guilty under the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act and given a three-month suspended sentence.
These graphic displays created distress among the students on campus and one of my friends broke down after seeing the display, crying, recalling her own miscarriage.
It also helped me decide once and for all to go public about my own miscarriage and to look back at notes I had written to myself back in April when the loss was still fresh.
