Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards has revealed that she had an abortion. In an essay submitted to Elle magazine, Richards recalls:
There’s a big difference between sharing your story and being forced to justify your decision… I know this firsthand. I had an abortion. It was the right decision for me and my husband, and it wasn’t a difficult decision.
She points out that abortion is personal to her, and so is legislation surrounding it:
Before becoming president of Planned Parenthood eight years ago, I hadn’t really talked about it beyond family and close friends. But I’m here to say, when politicians argue and shout about abortion, they’re talking about me—and millions of other women around the country.
Richards, whose $523,616 annual salary could be poised to take a nosedive as America grows more outspokenly pro-life, is among a cohort of abortion advocates who have taken to fresh marketing tactics to stay afloat. Damning exposés like the revelations made on a regular basis by Live Action certainly haven’t helped the abortion industry’s popularity, either.
This season’s variety of face-saving semantics is aimed at reducing the “stigma” of abortion. To this end, websites and campaigns have been set up to allow women to share the stories of why they’re glad they had abortions. (To find the stories of women who walked away from their abortions broken and scarred for a balanced perspective on the issue — which, by the way, vastly outnumber their counterparts — you’ll have to consult groups within the pro-life movement.)
Elle has lately been releasing pieces (like this) aimed at presenting abortion as no big deal, and in keeping with that trend, Richards shared the story of her own abortion — well, more like an afterthought of the abortion, since it “wasn’t a difficult decision.”
Richards, who ends on a rosy note about three pro-choice high school students she met, is quite misled about where the abortion movement is going, and apparently unaware that the younger generations do not view abortion as the non-issue that she does.
