by Steven Ertelt | Washington, DC | LifeNews.com | 4/4/14 5:31 PM

It’s not easy being pro-life in Hollywood. Tinseltown USA is notorious for its left-wing politics and actors and actresses who push all sorts of political causes that are politically correct or en vogue at the time.

But when it comes to abortion, a few Hollywood celebrities and entertainment icons are willing to speak out and say they are pro-life. Here are a few of them, in their own words:

Jack Nicholson

Nicholson’s opinions on abortion were formed by personal experience. He was a grown man when he discovered the woman he thought was his sister was actually his mother, and the woman he knew as his mother was his grandmother. His mother became pregnant as a teenager and was encouraged to have an abortion, even back in 1937, but she chose life for her son. The revelation that his sister was his mom was understandably difficult for Nicholson, and had a profound affect on him. For one, it made him pro-life:

I’m very contra my constituency in terms of abortion because I’m positively against it. I don’t have the right to any other view. My only emotion is gratitude, literally, for my life.

This short statement is full of humility, wisdom, and courage. Note that he says, “I don’t have the right to any other view.” He has understood, thanks to the knowledge that his own life almost never happened, that life is a gift for which we should all feel gratitude. His willingness to vocally oppose abortion in the face of Hollywood and his own political party is inspiring and should be encouraged.

Mel Gibson

Mel Gibson is not without controversy and he’s admittedly made some mistakes in his life. Still, Gibson has never wavered on the issue of life.

In a Barbara Walters interview in 1990, at the height of his fame, Gibson said:

One can’t decide for oneself who comes into this world and who doesn’t. That decision doesn’t belong to us.

Later, he vocally spoke out against life destroying embryonic stem cell research. He said this on a television commercial:

…[I]n 23 years embryonic stem cell research has not produced a single human cure. All it has yielded is tumors, rejection, and mutations. See bad science doesn’t attract venture capital. So why should the taxpayers be bled dry? This is Mel Gibson and I’m voting NO on Prop 71. Creating life simply to destroy it is wrong.

Patricia Heaton

Patricia Heaton is one of the few prominent pro-life women in Hollywood. Recently, LifeNews notedhow Heaton takes to Twitter to voice her pro-life convictions as she often does, most recently highlighting how abortions target a disproportionate number of black babies.

But where do her pro-life convictions come from? As she tells The Blaze, her pro-life views and Christian faith go hand in hand and that becoming a mother made it so abortion was something she felt more passionate about and gave her an additional reason to do so.

Heaton said, as far back as 2004, that she and her pro-abortion Hollywood colleagues didn’t see eye to eye on abortion – explaining why her name was not on a list of Hollywood celebs supporting a pro-abortion march that year.

“Many of the celebrities on the list are my friends,” Heaton explained, “but when it comes to championing abortion, we go our separate ways.”

“I find it impossible to subscribe to a philosophy that believes that the destruction of human life is a legitimate solution to a problem that is mostly social, economic and psychological,” said Heaton. “In reality, most women ‘choose’ abortion because they believe they have no other choice.”

Donald Trump

Donald Trump shocked attendees at a CPAC conferencewhen he declared himself pro-life after years of supporting the pro-abortion position.

“One thing about me, I’m a very honorable guy. I’m pro-life, but I changed my view a number of years ago. One of the reasons I changed… a friend of mine’s wife was pregnant, in this case married. She was pregnant and he didn’t really want the baby. And he was telling me the story,” Trump said. “He was crying as he was telling me the story. He ends up having the baby and the baby is the apple of his eye. It’s the greatest thing that’s ever happened to him. And you know here’s a baby that wasn’t going to be let into life.

Justin Bieber
A young Justin Bieber was widely criticized for his open stance on abortion. “I really don’t believe in abortion,” Bieber told Rolling Stone in 2011. “It’s like killing a baby.” When asked about cases of rape, the pop star said, “Um. Well, I think that’s really sad, but everything happens for a reason. I don’t know how that would be a reason. I guess I haven’t been in that position, so I wouldn’t be able to judge that.”

Bieber may have made mistakes in his life since then and needs to get on a more upstanding path, but he apparently still holds to his pro-life views.

Kenny Chesney
Chesney’s most notable example of pro-life advocacy is in the song he has called one of his favorites, “There Goes My Life.” It spent seven weeks at number one, and it tells the story of a teenager whose girlfriend gets pregnant and has the baby rather than having an abortion. The teen initially believes that his life has been ruined, but in the end, he realizes how much of a blessing the child is.

Jordin Sparks
Sparks has repeatedly participated in pro-life conferences as a volunteer and singer. She sang at Arizona’s Right to Life 2005 conference and attended the conference with Dr. Alveda King, the pro-life niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the keynote speaker at the event.

Sparks hasn’t been shy about her pro-life beliefs either. She appears on Fox & Friends last year with Brian Kilmeade who asked her questions based on emails from viewers. Sparks was asked about a ring she wears on her wedding ring finger even though she is 17 year-old and unmarried.

She said, without hesitation, that it was her Purity Ring, and that it says she’s waiting until she is married, and saving herself for true love.

Jim Caviezel
Jim Caviezel, famed for his role as Christ in The Passion of the Christ, and currently starring as the leading man in TV’s Person of Interest, is no stranger to being, well, different in Hollywood. From his publicly Catholic faith to his committed pro-life views, he stands in stark contrast to the typical movie star.

Caviezel’s personal life is even more remarkable than his incredible on-screen talent. Taking the road less traveled, Jim and his wife Kerri have adopted two children from China, both of whom had special needs.

Their first adopted child, Bo, came to the Caviezels after a traumatic first five years of life. The little boy had a brain tumor and had been abandoned before he was taken in by an orphanage and subsequently adopted by his loving parents. Bo is a remarkably boisterous child, and with the love he has received from Jim and Kerri, it is hard to believe that just a few short years ago he was struggling to survive in a hostile environment.

When asked how becoming a father had affected him, Caviezel told Catholic Digest, “Even though they’re adopted, it’s as strong as any instinct. That’s what blew me away. I always thought if I adopted that I wouldn’t have the same feeling [as I would] if they were genetically my own children. Nothing could be further from the truth.”

The actor told Catholic Digest in 2009 that being pro-life is more important to him than his career. He told the digest, “How are we so arrogant to think the 51.5 million babies who have died in this country… Look, I am for helping women. I just don’t see abortion as helping women. And I don’t love my career that much to say, ‘I’m going to remain silent on this.’”

Kathy Ireland
Kathy Ireland rose to fame in the 1980s as a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model. In 2011, Ireland was the keynote speaker at the Council for Life’s annual luncheon, where she professed her religious beliefs and detailed her journey from being an advocate for women’s right to choose to become a pro-life supporter.

As a supermodel who graced the covers of magazines world wide, Kathy Ireland told over 300 people gathered in Columbia, Mo., on September 24 she was told by photographers to “shut up and pose.”  Now this design company mogul tells those fighting for the pro-life cause to “speak the truth and never let anyone silence you.”

The former Sports Illustrated (SI) swimsuit cover model considered herself a “Pro-Choice Christian” until she dove into the medical books of her husband, an emergency room doctor.  She used those science texts to even change her husband’s view on abortion.  Then she did something many told her not to do—go on Bill Maher’s HBO show “Politically Incorrect” and take the pro-life view.

“I was told it was a lose-lose situation and would kill my business.  But I thought if I did this maybe one woman watching wouldn’t kill her baby,” Ireland shared.  Thankfully she had a business partner who encouraged her to do it, saying if one woman watching cancelled her abortion appointment, it would be so worth it.”

Nick Cannon
Nick Cannon, the rapper and husband of R&B/pop superstar Mariah Carey, released a song in 2005 entitled “Can I Live.” The song tells of Cannon’s near abortion death.

Phil Robertson

Robertson is very strongly pro-life.

In a video featuring Duck Dynasty’s Robertson, the TV star – in what appears to be a religious sermon – declares his pro-life stance on the issue of abortion.  When discussing the ethics of, and that there’s even a debate on, the issue, he asks, “What in the world happened to us?”

“Listen, from the time you started inside your mother’s womb, Thomas Jefferson had it right, you have the God-given right to life for crying out loud. You’re this long (pointing to his finger). You’re a week old inside your mother. They suck you out of there when you’re about like that (point to finger again). You wouldn’t be here tonight!

“And, when you got to be the size of my thumb, they suck you out. You wouldn’t be here. Then, you grow a little bigger, like my fist – and finally eight, nine months later you come out.