Killea Says History Thrust Her Into Role of Pro-Choice Symbol : Abortion: The new state senator’s appearance at a Sacramento rally underscores her reluctant status in the rejuvenated pro-choice movement.

Comparing herself to the woman who won the historic U.S. Supreme Court decision to legalize abortion, Sen. Lucy Killea on Monday told a noontime rally that the forces of history have thrust her into the spotlight as a reluctant symbol of the pro-choice movement.

“Anyone who knows me, knows that it was not a role I sought,” Killea (D-San Diego) told a noisy crowd gathered on the Capitol steps to celebrate the 17th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, as the court decision is known. “I had always spoken in favor of choice and always voted pro-choice, but, and this is no secret, it was never my cause.

“But history sometimes puts us in a position where we must respond to challenges. I think Norma McCorvey must have felt something similar,” Killea said, referring to the woman whose lawsuit against the Dallas district attorney led to the 1973 court decision.

Killea’s remarks and appearance as a featured speaker at the Monday rally underscores just how much the low-key legislator has become an icon of the rejuvenated pro-choice movement, which is still basking in the glow of her election victory in December.

The story of how Killea’s campaign overcame the public censure of Bishop Leo T. Maher to capture an open Senate seat in conservative, Republican San Diego County has been embraced as part of the political lore of the movement in a way that even Killea now says she couldn’t have imagined.

The day after her election, she told The Times she was uncomfortable with the notoriety that came with being the first elected official in the country to be barred from receiving Communion by the Roman Catholic Church because of her pro-choice views.

“I don’t want to become a symbol of anything and don’t expect that to happen,” she said then. “ . . . I thought too much was made of it during the campaign, so I’d be very happy to just fade into the background a bit and focus on some other issues.”

But it didn’t happen that way.

“About a week or two after the election, I kept thinking, ‘This is going to die down,’ ” Killea said Monday in an interview after the rally. “And a couple of weeks after the election, it didn’t.”

Now Killea says her continual popularity has persuaded her, albeit reluctantly, to accept her role as a symbol of “a woman’s success in overcoming many of the barriers that are put in the way of pro-choice decisions.”

“And it’s not just the church thing,” she said. “But I think it was a little bit of a feminist symbol, a man using his authority to put down a woman.”

Killea’s aides point out that the first speech she delivered on the Senate floor this year was during debate over restoring $20 million in proposed budget cuts for family planning clinics.

On Sunday, Killea stopped at a pro-choice rally in Los Angeles before driving to Sacramento for the Capitol rally. On Thursday, she will travel to Santa Barbara to speak to grass-roots women’s groups that, provoked by the bishop’s rebuke, raised money for the San Diego Senate campaign.

Monday, Killea shared the outdoor podium with leaders of women’s organizations, McCorvey and Assembly Speaker Willie Brown. During his fiery remarks, Brown lumped the Killea victory in with Democratic pro-choice victories in Virginia, New York City and New Jersey.

“The bishop decided to refuse to let Lucy drink wine in the church and eat the bread of life. Lucy won, and she stands as a symbol today,” Brown said to erupting cheers.

Killea followed a few minutes later to say that, in retrospect, Maher’s move was tantamount to a call for pro-choice action.

“History works in unpredictable ways,” she said. “When Bishop Maher faxed me his letter, he inadvertently singled me out to carry the pro-choice message across the country--and I obliged.”

Although Killea eventually embraced the role as a pro-choice symbol, another San Diego legislator named prominently in the Monday rally said she chose to avoid the gathering for political purposes.

Newly elected Assemblywoman Tricia Hunter (R-Bonita) was mentioned by Brown for her dark-horse political victory, one he credited to Hunter’s support for legalized abortion and a ban on assault weapons. The Hunter victory in an overwhelmingly conservative area drew national attention because it was the first political race after a 1989 Supreme Court decision throwing the question of abortion back to the states.

“Down in San Diego, a woman named Tricia Hunter, whom I believe couldn’t have won under any other circumstances whatsoever, had two things going for her that the nerds running against her didn’t,” Brown said, referring to Hunter’s pro-choice stance.

Hunter said late Monday that she decided to skip the rally, although she was invited by the pro-choice forces who sent volunteers to work in her campaign. She attended a task force on the nursing shortage instead.

“You know, I’m a pro-choice vote and nobody doubts that,” Hunter said. “My position is real clear. I’m going to fight real hard for a pro-choice vote within the Republican Party.

“But that’s not the only issue that’s important to me or my district. And I don’t believe that there should be an expectation that I can or will attend every pro-choice function.”

Times staff writer Barry M. Horstman contributed to this report.