LifeNews.com
Note: The following is based on an interview 28 year-old Gianna Jessen gave
to the Independent, a newspaper in the UK.
My biological mother was seven-and-a-half months
pregnant when she decided to abort me. I don't know why she made that
decision. It was 1977. She and my biological father were 17 at the time and
weren't married.
She went to a clinic
in Los Angeles and had a saline abortion. A salt solution is injected into
the mother's womb, which the baby gulps. The solution also burns the baby
inside and out. The idea was that within 24 hours she would deliver a dead
baby. But, by the grace of God, I survived.
The
abortionist wasn't on duty when I came into the world. Had he been there, he
would have ended my life with strangulation, suffocation or leaving me there
to die, which was considered perfectly legal up until 5 August 2002 in the
United States. Now, a child who has survived an abortion must receive proper
medical care. The abortionist had to sign my birth certificate. He had to
acknowledge a life that just hours before he was trying to end.
The only
person even remotely concerned about my well-being was the nurse. She called
an ambulance and had me transferred to a hospital. I was placed in an
incubator weighing two pounds. They didn't expect me to live.
After
several months they decided that I had a tremendous will to live. I was
placed in the foster care system and at 17 months was diagnosed with
cerebral palsy due to lack of oxygen while I was being burnt alive for 18
hours in my mother's womb. I was 32lbs, couldn't move and they said that I
would just be a vegetable for the rest of my life.
My foster
mother, Penny, decided that despite what the doctors were saying, she would
work with me. She did my physical therapy three times a day and I began to
hold up my head, sit up and crawl. Eventually, at the age of
three-and-a-half, I was able to walk with a walker and leg braces. That was
the age at which Penny's daughter, Diana, who was then in her thirties,
adopted me.
I'm 28 now
and work as a musician in Nashville, Tennessee. I still walk with a limp and
fall occasionally. But I've just completed my first marathon and will be
running the London Marathon next April to raise funds for children with
cerebral palsy. I'll be running on behalf of Stars Organization Supporting
Cerebral Palsy.
Diana told
me about my past. I had always had this sense that there was more to my life
story. I was always asking her why I had cerebral palsy. You would have
thought that I would be fine with her answers because I was a premature baby
or that I had experienced a traumatic birth.
But when I
asked her again when I was 12 she asked me whether I really wanted to know
and I said yes. When she explained it to me, my reply was typical of a
12-year-old. I just said, at least I have cerebral palsy for an interesting
reason. My mother said a good thing: that instead of focusing on the fact
that you almost died, rejoice in the fact that you are alive. And I do.
When I was
17, Diana met my biological mother and communicated very clearly to her my
forgiveness. I'm a Christian. I believe that bitterness eats up your life. I
want to be the opposite of bitter. I never wanted to meet her. Penny has
loved me so well I don't feel the need. I don't know much about the meeting,
only that she didn't ask for forgiveness from me and that she had another
abortion later.
I started
speaking out about abortion when I was 14, and on Tuesday I will be speaking
to a parliamentary meeting at the House of Commons about it. I believe that
it's important when something like this has happened to you to present the
truth about not just abortion, but also about what a tremendous life you can
possess through overcoming weakness.
I don't
believe that killing is a right. I am completely against abortion in any
circumstance, including rape.
Even though
rape is a horrific crime I do not believe that a child should have to pay
for the crime. I don't believe that abortion in that case will solve a
problem. In fact I have met people who are the product of rape and they say
they are very glad to be alive. If abortion is merely about women's rights
then what were mine? There wasn't a radical feminist yelling about how my
rights were being violated on that day.
Every day I
thank God for life. I do not consider myself a by-product of conception, a
clump of tissue, or any other of the titles given to a child in the womb. I
do not consider any person conceived to be any of those things. I have met
other survivors of abortion. They are all thankful for life.
Today, a
baby is a baby when convenient. It is tissue or otherwise when the time is
not right. A baby is a baby when miscarriage takes place at two, three, four
months. A baby is called a tissue or clumps of cells when an abortion takes
place at two, three, four months. Why is that? I see no difference.
I believe
that I am living proof that abortion is the killing of a human being. My
biological mother felt that she was entitled to a choice 28 years ago that
she thought would only affect her. And yet I bear the mark of her choice
every day of my life with my cerebral palsy. Although I don't hold it
against her, I think it's important for people to think about that before
they make their decision.
