How Orrin Hatch Made Me Pro-Choice

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I don’t know exactly how it came up but I remember sitting in the passenger seat of my mom’s car, winding through the tree-lined back roads of suburban Cincinnati, as she drove me to Mutual. I was 15 years old and just beginning to take an interest in politics. I admit that most of my burgeoning political opinions were matched pretty closely to the upper middle class, conservative environment I grew up in. But I was also extremely sheltered and had only recently discovered what abortion was so I was pretty much a blank slate on the issue.

My memory has me stammering something like, “I’m a Republican so I guess I have to be against abortion…right?” My mother shrugged her shoulders and said, “I don’t know. I think Orrin Hatch said he hated abortion but didn’t think it was right to take women’s agency away. That’s pretty much how I feel about it too.”

This was earth-shaking to me because, at that time, she was a Republican zealot. The only reason we were talking during that car ride was because it was after dinner and Rush Limbaugh’s show was already over for the day. But somehow she had found a work-around on this one issue. And that work-around came in the form of Utah senator, Orrin Hatch.

There have been very few times in my life where a single statement solidified my opinion on a complicated issue but this was one of them. It immediately clicked when I heard those words and I felt it in my core that this was right and true.  I had sat through countless Sunday School lessons on the Plan of Salvation and free agency as a born and raised Mormon girl so my mother’s explanation naturally lined up with my religious understanding. And if we’re being honest, it probably didn’t hurt that an influential Mormon man and priesthood holder seemingly signed off on this approach. All that to say, this was a foundational moment in my life. It completely formed my stance on reproductive rights and solidified women’s autonomy as one of my core value. I was staunchly pro-choice from that moment forward even though I identified as a Republican through the rest of my teens and into my early twenties.

You may have gotten to this point and scratched your head, wondering if this is really Orrin Hatch’s position? The answer is no. No it is not. He has a 0% rating from NARAL Pro-Choice America. I did a fairly extensive google search and the only time Hatch ran afoul of pro-life groups was over embryonic stem cell research…and that happened after I had this conversation with my mother. I have no idea where she came up with this idea or how my mother shoehorned his position to fit her own beliefs. However, twenty years later I think it’s hilarious that this is how I formed a fundamental political opinion. So, in honor of Senator Hatch’s impending retirement, the possible overturning of Roe v. Wade and this week where we celebrate our right to have differing opinions, I thought it was high time this story get told.

How did/do you form your political opinions? Have you ever had a moment where something clicked for you and became one of your core beliefs?