Right out of the chute, Jodi Hicks told us in her Los Angeles Times op-ed that as an “outspoken advocate for gender equality and women’s rights,” it “seems obvious that I’m not afraid on the word ‘abortion.’ ” In fact, Hicks is the President and CEO of Planned Parenthood in California.
So why the strange headline that says “Why am I telling the story of my abortion now?“?
Because he doesn’t “always say it directly. And to this day, I have not told my own abortion story.”
So why hasn’t Hicks always talked about her abortion?
You see, I come from a generation that emphasizes privacy. We emphasize “choice” and the “right to choose” instead of talking directly about abortion. We tiptoed around it, in effect accepting the notion that abortion is problematic, even shameful, and should be legalized as a last resort.
Well, ok. Did Hicks really know that taking her baby’s life was “problematic, even embarrassing”? “Legal as a last resort” allows him to make peace with his conscience.
But that was and…
But those who have not spoken to us can no longer be silent. We cannot allow abortion to be misrepresented and denigrated by the divisive, dehumanizing messages of a minority with strong views on this very important human right.
Hicks cited the pro-life legislative onslaught. One way to “fight these state bans and to fight the stigma they perpetuate” is for women to share their abortion stories. “But,” Hicks asked rhetorically, “how can I be a part of asking others to make their stories public if I haven’t done the same?”
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Her abortion story began when she was 16 and discovered she was pregnant. After dropping clues (and notes) his mother caught him. Hicks told us that her mother “drove me to the clinic, paid for the service and took care of me when we got home. I had a supportive family and an uncomplicated abortion.”
Note: he and his mother had not discussed the abortion since “and to this day, I have no idea if my father knew.”
He follows it up with the usual pro-abortion point-making. His last verse is emblematic and, again, most revealing:
This is my story, and the story of millions of others like me. I had an abortion. I deserve the life I have now, the family I have and the destiny I can pursue. My life today is possible because I had access to appropriate health care, to abortion.
Doesn’t the baby she aborted also deserve life, family, and her own destiny? What would have been their story if Hicks had taken a different path?
Important questions, questions that I suspect Hicks wrestled with more than this op-ed would lead you to believe.
LifeNews.com Note: Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News and an author and editor of several books on abortion topics. This post originally appeared on National Right to Life News Today —- an online column on pro-life issues.
