Posted on 01/21/2004 2:35:43 AM PST by tame
I have posted the following bio of Gianna Jessen's survival because, although it is not a "new" story, recent events indicated it is a crucial story to revisit...MAY WE NEVER FORGET!
Gianna Jessen
Testimony of abortion survivor Gianna Jessen before the Constitution Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee on April 22, 1996:
"My name is Gianna Jessen. I am 19 years of age. I am originally from California, but now reside in Franklin, Tennessee. I am adopted. I have cerebral palsy. My biological mother was 17 years old and seven and one-half months pregnant when she made the decision to have a saline abortion. I am the person she aborted. I lived instead of died.
Fortunately for me the abortionist was not in the clinic when I arrived alive, instead of dead, at 6:00 a.m. on the morning of April 6, 1977. I was early, my death was not expected to be seen until about 9 a.m., when he would probably be arriving for his office hours. I am sure I would not be here today if the abortionist would have been in the clinic as his job is to take life, not sustain it. Some have said I am a "botched abortion", a result of a job not well done.
There were many witnesses to my entry into this world. My biological mother and other young girls in the clinic, who also awaited the death of their babies, were the first to greet me. I am told this was a hysterical moment. Next was a staff nurse who apparently called emergency medical services and had me transferred to a hospital.
I remained in the hospital for almost three months. There was not much hope for me in the beginning. I weighed only two pounds. Today, babies smaller than I was have survived.
A doctor once said I had a great will to live and that I fought for my life. I eventually was able to leave the hospital and be placed in foster care. I was diagnosed with cerebral palsy as a result of the abortion.
My foster mother was told that it was doubtful that I would ever crawl or walk. I could not sit up independently. Through the prayers and dedication of my foster mother, and later many other people, I eventually learned to sit up, crawl, then stand. I walked with leg braces and a walker shortly before I turned age four. I was legally adopted by my foster mother's daughter, Diana De Paul, a few months after I began to walk. The Department of Social Services would not release me any earlier for adoption.
I have continued in physical therapy for my disability, and after a total of four surgeries, I can now walk without assistance. It is not always easy. Sometimes I fall, but I have learned how to fall gracefully after falling 19 years.
I am happy to be alive. I almost died. 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. Only a few months ago I met another saline abortion survivor. Her name is Sarah. She is two years old. Sarah also has cerebral palsy, but her diagnosis is not good. She is blind and has severe seizures. The abortionist, besides injecting the mother with saline, also injects the baby victims. Sarah was injected in the head. I saw the place on her head where this was done. When I speak, I speak not only for myself, but for the other survivors, like Sarah, and also for those who cannot yet speak ...
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. What are you seeing? Many close there eyes...
The best thing I can show you to defend life is my life. It has been a great gift. Killing is not the answer to any question or situation. Show me how it is the answer.
There is a quote which is etched into the high ceilings of one of our state's capitol buildings. The quote says, "Whatever is morally wrong, is not politically correct." Abortion is morally wrong. Our country is shedding the blood of the innocent. America is killing its future.
All life is valuable. All life is a gift from our Creator. We must receive and cherish the gifts we are given. We must honor the right to life."
Gianna is a GIFT -- and an example of extraordinary courage.
God help us.
Years ago I read a letter to an editor in which the writer thanked her birth mother for "allowing her to live" and letting her be adopted even though her mother had been raped. She was now a wife and mother of two.
Tears came to my eyes as well, and every January, and sometimes October, when pro-life issues are brought up for increased attention I read something by Gianna and it's always wonderful and life affirming and inspiring.
44,000,000. That number is so hard to imagine. Imagine what 'we've' thrown away. By any other means of death, that kind of number over 30 years would be called genocide or holocaust or at least be a war related tragedy. We call it a 'right' and some among us defend it virulently. So sad for our 'great' nation. She's right, of course, America is killing it's future.
Thackney: Ping!
Wow, what a story. Thanks for the link !What I really don't get is the Liberals' disapproval of Death Penalty... of serial murderers... yet their approval of the murder of millions of innocent children, waiting to be born.
Doesn't make sense, does it ?? Missing parts in their little pointy heads I bet !
The media is strongly pro-abortion and anti-death penalty, too. For example, look at the title of this thread:
01-14-2004
Ex-pizza delivery man set to die
Just from the title, one might think Texas is executing folks for delivering bad or cold pizza, instead of for cold-blooded murder.
Boy would I love to have a transcript or audio/video of that.
Kate Michelman, President of NARAL (not NOW -- I was mistaken). Specifically, she said that Gianna was being "paraded around like a sideshow freak."
Here's a photo of the courageous young woman:
How can a civilized, intellectual and educated society of people, made up of individuals presumably with consciences and souls just like everyone else, choose to systematically target and eliminate another group of individuals in cold blood, without mercy or a second thought?
There is no argument that the Nazis used a variety of methods to thwart resistance to their goal, the annihilation of every Jew in Europe. However, even with our democratic government, we do not really have freedom to choose freely. System-regulated propaganda is so pervasive that individuals who initially support certain causes can eventually fall victim to the lies built within, with devastating consequences (Norma McCorvey is one example; she was deceived by the feminist pro-abortion propaganda machine. Let's not forget the many women who, seduced by "choice," opt for abortion and suffer from post abortion syndrome later on). Indeed, in a democracy, good people who mean well and want the best for everyone are not always prepared to acknowledge their own errors in judgment, until it is too late. That's the downside of freedom, which if left unguarded, can lead to government abuse that will destroy the foundation of our Constitution along with the moral principles upon which our country was founded.
When the Supreme Court declares open season on babies, nullifying state rights they themselves set forth in the former Casey decision, it's time for all Americans to take notice. Unless there is political intervention now, soon, to stop our progression into complacency, we will one day seriously regret our error. We'll be killing living children with resignation and acceptance, perhaps even glee, along with other members of our society deemed unfit or inconvenient. By then, deformed thinking will be the norm and people will have so acclimated themselves that they will no longer be able to distinguish the difference in value between a living human being and a dead one.
Mom Gets Away With Murder, But No One Else Does?
Key Facts on the Unborn Victims of Violence Act -- January 8, 2004
The bill would establish that if an unborn child is injured or killed during the commission of an already-defined federal crime of violence, then the assailant may be charged with a second offense on behalf of the second victim, the unborn child. The exact charge would depend on which federal law is involved, the degree of harm done to the child, and other factors. The bill would apply this two-victim principle to 68 existing federal laws dealing with acts of violence.
The bill explicitly provides that it does not apply to any abortion to which a woman has consented, to any act of the mother herself (legal or illegal), or to any form of medical treatment. Nevertheless, the National Right to Life Committee supports the bill because it achieves other pro-life purposes that are worthwhile in their own right: The protection of unborn children from acts of violence other than abortion, the recognition that unborn children may be victims of such violent criminal acts, and the punishment of those who harm unborn children while engaged in federally prohibited acts of violence.
The Unborn Victims of Violence Act would not supersede state unborn victims laws, nor would it impose such a law in a state that has not enacted one. Rather, the bill applies only to unborn children injured or killed during the course of already-defined federal crimes of violence.
Moreover, in the 1989 case of Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to invalidate a Missouri statute that declares that "the life of each human being begins at conception," that "unborn children have protectable interests in life, health, and well-being," and that all state laws (including criminal laws) "shall be interpreted and construed to acknowledge on behalf of the unborn child at every stage of development, all the rights, privileges, and immunities available to other persons, citizens, and residents of this state," to the extent permitted by the Constitution and U.S. Supreme Court rulings. A lower court had ruled that Missouris law "impermissibl[y]" adopted "a theory of when life begins," and blocked its enforcement, but the Supreme Court nullified that ruling, allowing the law to go into effect so long as the state did not use it to restrict abortion.
Yet, on July 25, 2000, the House passed on a vote of 417-0 a bill that contained the same definition of "child in utero" and that embodied the same basic legal principle. That bill, the Innocent Child Protection Act, said that no state or federal authority may "carry out a sentence of death on a woman while she carries a child in utero. . . .child in utero means a member of the species homo sapiens, at any stage of development, who is carried in the womb." The principle embodied in the Innocent Child Protection Act was obvious carrying out the execution would take two human lives, including one convicted of no crime.
State Homicide Laws that Recognize Unborn Victims -- June 23, 2003
As of January 5, 2004, twenty-eight (28) states have enacted laws which recognize unborn children as human victims of violent crimes covered by state laws. Fifteen (15) of these states provide this protection throughout the period of in utero development, while the other 13 provide protection during certain specified stages of development. These laws are sometimes referred to as "fetal homicide" laws.
One Victim or Two? Results from Three National Polls
The Unborn Victims of Violence Act (S. 1019) would recognize as a legal victim an unborn child who is injured or killed during commission of a federal crime against the baby's mother. A substitute amendment to be offered by Senator Dianne Feinstein would increase penalties for federal crimes against pregnant women - but would recognize only one victim, the mother, and without recognizing any loss of human life if the mother survives the assault. Sharon Rocha, mother of Laci Peterson and grandmother of Conner Peterson, has called such a single-victim proposal "a step away from justice, not toward it." But what does the general public say? If a criminal assaults a woman who carries an unborn child, does that crime have two victims, or only one? Here are three recent national polls on that issue.
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