Readings, Rated
Susan Wicklund
Date: Wednesday, January 30th, 2008
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Location: Women and Children First
I first heard about abortion doctor cum memoirist Susan Wicklund in this article on Salon.com (there are also pieces on Powell’s and in The New York Times). Wicklund has written a memoir, the aptly-titled This Common Secret: My Journey as an Abortion Doctor. The Salon piece explains some of the things she faced in her line of work:
She has donned disguises to get past the protesters who scream and wave signs outside both her home and her medical office. She’s worn a bulletproof vest and carried a gun. In some states, Wicklund is required to read abortion patients misleading, politician-penned scripts that refer to an embryo as an “unborn baby” and warn that the procedure can be fatal (with no mention of the fact that wisdom tooth removal is far riskier).
Argh! Anyway, this event will have a representative from the Chicago Abortion Fund, who will speak about making abortion feasible for low-income women, begging the question of what Chicago would do without Women and Children First? Probably the same thing America would do without legal abortion, minus the coat hangers.