This is one in a series of profiles marking the 60th anniversary of the ACLU of Kentucky’s founding. Each week through December 2015 we will highlight the story of one member, client, case, board or staff member that has been an integral part of our organization’s rich history.
Mikki Adams
“What sets the ACLU of Kentucky apart from other organizations? The tenacity with which [it] grabs onto an issue, and [does not] let go. And they don’t fool around. They are not to be screwed with. We are not to be screwed with.”
Mikki Adams got involved with the ACLU of Kentucky in the 1970s during the Vietnam War. “[President] Nixon came to town, and they were ripping signs out of our hands,” she recalled, laughing. “We all got pissed off.”
Getting pissed off was a common spark for Adams’ involvement with the ACLU-KY in a number of roles, including volunteer, member of the board of directors, and legal advisor on a range of civil liberties issues, especially women’s reproductive rights. She remembers reading an article about a woman having to go to New York to get a legal abortion. Adams realized most Kentucky women didn’t have the resources to seek care in another state. She also noticed an increasing use of religious arguments to attempt to limit access to abortions. “I just was appalled that someone would insert their religion into my reproductive choices,” she said.
Since the early 1990s, Adams has helped teenage girls navigate the legal system through judicial bypass, so they could have an abortion without parental consent. Personally knowing people hurt by the lack of reproductive freedom spurred Adams in her work. “I knew several girls who dropped out of college because they got pregnant. And other girls took care of their pregnancies: They went to New York or they went to Mexico or they went to Sweden, and then the back alley,” Adams said, adding that, while she wants to retire from law, she will continue her service to young women: “If my daughter were in that situation, I would want someone who was going to pay attention and listen to her and help her without any judgment.”