Rebecca Kiessling
Conceived in rape / Pro-life speaker
Product of Rape, International Pro-Life Speaker, Attorney
We've all heard someone say:
"I'm pro-life, well, except in cases of rape . . ."
or
"I'm pro-choice, especially in cases of rape !"

Have you ever considered how really insulting it is to say to someone, "I think
your  mother should have been able to abort you."?  It's like saying, "If I had my
way, you'd be dead right now."  And that is the reality with which I live every time
someone says they are pro-choice or pro-life "except in cases of rape" because
I absolutely would have been aborted if it had been legal in Michigan when I
was an  unborn child, and I can tell you that it hurts.  But I know that most
people don't put  a face to this issue -- for them abortion is just a concept -- with
a quick cliche, they  sweep it under the rug and forget about it.  I do hope that,
as a child conceived in   rape, I can help to put a face, a voice, and a story to
this issue.   

In reply, some have said to me, "So does that mean you're pro-rape?"   Though
ludicrous, I'll address it because I understand that they aren't thinking things      
through.  There is a huge moral difference because I did exist, and my life
would have been ended because I would have been killed by a brutal abortion.  
You can  only be killed and your life can only be devalued once you exist. Being
thankful that my life was protected in no way makes me pro-rape.

-- Rebecca
Rebecca Kiessling's story (short form):

I was adopted nearly from birth.  At 18, I learned that I was conceived out of a brutal rape at knife-point by a serial rapist.  Like most people, I'd never
considered that abortion applied to my life, but once I received this information, all of a sudden I realized that, not only does it apply to my life, but it has to
do with my very existence.  It was as if I could hear the echoes of all those people who, with the most sympathetic of tones, would say, “Well, except in
cases of rape. . .  ," or who would rather fervently exclaim in disgust: “Especially is cases of rape!!!”  All these people are out there who don’t even know
me, but are standing in judgment of my life, so quick to dismiss it just because of how I was conceived.  I felt like I was now going to have to justify my own
existence, that I would have to prove myself to the world that I shouldn’t have been aborted and that I was worthy of living.  I also remember feeling like
garbage because of people who would say that my life was like garbage -- that I was disposable.

Please understand that whenever you identify yourself as being “pro-choice,” or whenever you make that exception for rape, what that really translates into
is you being able to stand before me, look me in the eye, and say to me, "I think your mother should have been able to abort you.”  That’s a pretty powerful
statement.  I would never say anything like that to someone.  I would say never to someone, “If I had my way, you’d be dead right now.”  But that is the
reality with which I live.  I challenge anyone to describe for me how it's not.  It’s not like people say, “Oh well, I’m pro-choice except for that little window of
opportunity in 1968/69, so that you, Rebecca, could have been born.”  No -- this is the ruthless reality of that position, and I can tell you that it hurts and it’s
mean.  But I know that most people don’t put a face to this issue.  For them, it’s just a concept – a quick cliché, and they sweep it under the rug and forget
about it.  I do hope that, as a child of rape, I can help to put a face, a voice, and a story to this issue.

I've often experienced those who would confront me and try to dismiss me with quick quips like, “Oh well, you were lucky!”  
Be sure that my survival has nothing to do with luck.  The fact that I’m alive today has to do with choices that were made
by our society at large, people who fought to ensure abortion was illegal in Michigan at the time – even in cases of rape,
people who argued to protect my life, and people who voted pro-life.  I wasn’t lucky.  I was protected.  And would you
really rationalize that our brothers and sisters who are being aborted every day are just somehow "unlucky"?!!

Although my birthmother was thrilled to meet me, she did tell me that she actually went to two back-alley abortionists and
I was almost aborted.  After the rape, the police referred her to a counselor who basically told her that abortion was the
thing to do.  She said there were no crisis pregnancy centers back then, but my birthmother assured me that if there had
been, she would have gone if at least for a little more guidance.  The rape counselor is the one who set her up with the
back-alley abortionists.  For the first, she said it was the typical back-alley conditions that you hear about as to why "she
should have been able to safely and legally abort" me -- blood and dirt all over the table and floor.  Those back-alley
conditions and the fact that it was illegal caused her to back out, as with most women.  

Then she got hooked up with a more expensive abortionist.  This time she was to meet someone at night by the Detroit
Institute of Arts.  Someone would approach her, say her name, blindfold her, put her in the backseat of a car, take her
and then abort me . . . , then blindfold her again and drop her back off.  And do you know what I think is so pathetic?  It’s
that I know there are an awful lot of people out there who would hear me describe those conditions and their response
would just be a pitiful shake of the head in disgust:  “It’s just so awful that your birthmother should have had to have gone through that in order to have
been able to abort you!”  Like that’s compassionate?!!  I fully realize that they think they are being compassionate, but that’s pretty cold-hearted from
where I stand, don’t you think?  That is my life that they are so callously talking about and there is nothing compassionate about that position.  My
birthmother is okay – her life went on and in fact, she's doing great, but I would have been killed, my life would have been ended.  I may not look the same
as I did when I was four years old or four days old yet unborn in my mother’s womb, but that was still undeniably me and I would have been killed through a
brutal abortion.

According to the research of Dr. David Reardon, director of the Elliot Institute, co-editor of the book Victims and Victors:  Speaking Out About Their
Pregnancies, Abortions and Children Resulting From Sexual Assault, and author of the article "Rape, Incest and Abortion:  Searching Beyond the Myths,"
most women who become pregnant out of sexual assault do not want an abortion and are in fact worse-off after an abortion.  http://www.afterabortion.org.  
So most people's position on abortion in cases of rape is based upon faulty premises:  1) the rape victim would want an abortion, 2) she'd be better off with
an abortion and 3) that child's life just isn't worth having to put her through the pregnancy.  I hope that my story, and the other stories posted on this site,
will be able to help dispel that last myth.

I wish I could say that my birthmother was with the majority of victims and that she didn't want to abort me, but she had been convinced otherwise.  
However, the nasty disposition and foul mouth of this second back-alley abortionist, along with a fear for her own safety, caused her to back out.  When
she told him by phone that she wasn't interested in this risky arrangement, this abortion doctor insulted her and called her names.  To her surprise, he
called again the next day to try to talk her into aborting me once again, and again she declined and was hurled insults.  So that was it -- after that she just
couldn’t go through with it.  My birthmother was then heading into her second trimester – far more dangerous, far more expensive to have me aborted.  

I’m so thankful my life was spared, but a lot of well-meaning Christians would say things to me like, “Well you see, God really meant for you to be here!”  Or
others may say, "You were meant to be here."  But I know that God intends for every unborn child to be given the same opportunity to be born, and I can’t
sit contentedly saying, “Well, at least my life was spared.”  Or, “I deserved it.  Look what I’ve done with my life.”  And millions of others didn’t?  I can’t do
that.  Can you?  Can you just sit there and say, “At least I was wanted . . .  at least I’m alive . . . ,”  or just, “Whatever!”?  Is that really the kind of person who
you want to be?  Cold-hearted?  A facade of compassion on the exterior, but stone-cold and vacated from within?  Do you claim to care about women but
couldn't care less about me because I stand as a reminder of something you'd rather not face and that you'd hate for others to consider either?  Do I not fit
your agenda?

In law school, I’d also have classmates say things to me like, “Oh well!  If you’d been aborted, you wouldn’t be here today, and you wouldn’t know the
difference anyway, so what does it matter?”  Believe it or not, some of the top pro-abortion philosophers use that same kind of argument:  “The fetus never
knows what hits him, so there’s no such fetus to miss his life.”  So I guess as long as you stab someone in the back while he’s sleeping, then it’s okay,
because he doesn’t know what hits him?!  I’d explain to my classmates how their same logic would justify “me killing you today, because you wouldn’t be
here tomorrow, and you wouldn’t know the difference anyway, so what does it matter?"  And they’d just stand their with their jaws dropped.  It’s amazing
what a little logic can do, when you really think this thing through – like we were supposed to be doing in law school – and consider what we’re really talking
about:  there are lives who are not here today because they were aborted.  It’s like the old saying:  “If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is around to hear
it, does it make a noise?”  Well, yeah!  And if a baby is aborted, and no one else is around to know about it, does it matter?  The answer is, “YES!  Their
lives matter.  My life matters.  Your life matters and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise!

The world is a different place because it was illegal for my birthmother to abort me back then.  Your life is different because she could not legally abort me
because you are sitting here reading my words today!  But you don’t have to have an impact on audiences for your life to matter.  There is something we
are all missing here today because of the generations now who have been aborted and it matters.

One of the greatest things I’ve learned is that the rapist is NOT my creator, as some people would have me believe.  My value and identity are not
established as a “product of rape,” but a child of God. Psalm 68:5,6 declares:  “A father to the fatherless . . . is God in his holy dwelling.  God sets the
lonely in families.”  And Psalm 27:10 tells us “Though my father and mother forsake me,  the Lord will receive me.”  I know that there is no stigma in being
adopted.  We are told in the New Testament that it is in the spirit of adoption that we are called to be God’s children through Christ our Lord.  So He must
have thought pretty highly of adoption to use that as a picture of His love for us!

Most importantly, I’ve learned, I’ll be able to teach my children, and I teach others that your value is not based on the circumstances of your conception,
your parents, your siblings, your mate, your house, your clothes, your looks, your IQ, your grades, your scores, your money, your occupation, your
successes or failures, or your abilities or disabilities – these are the lies that are perpetuated in our society.  In fact, most motivational speakers tell their
audiences that if they could just make something of themselves and meet this certain societal standard, then they too could “be somebody.”  But the fact is
that no one could ever meet all of these ridiculous standards, and many people will fall incredibly short and so, does that mean that they’re not “somebody”
or that they’re “nobody?”  The truth is that you don't have to prove your worth to anyone, and if you really want to know what your value is, all you have to
do is look to the Cross – because that’s the price that was paid for you life!  That’s the infinite value that God placed on your life!  He thinks you are pretty
valuable, and so do I.  Won't you join me in affirming others' value as well, in word and in action?

For those of you who would say, "Well, I don't believe in God and I don't believe in the Bible, so I'm pro-choice," please read my essay, "The Right of the
Unborn Child Not to be Unjustly Killed -- a philosophy of rights approach."  I assure you, it will be worth your time.

For Life,
Rebecca
rebecca@rebeccakiessling.com

"Conceived in Rape:  
From Worthless to Priceless"
DVD of Rebecca Kiessling's Story

Arranged in Chapters

Amaray case "retail-ready"

Also available in the PAL
format for Europe)

$14.99
90 minutes
Rebecca Kiessling 8 months
pregnant; birthmother Joann (left);
 and Norma McCorvey -- "Jane
Roe" from Roe v Wade (right.)  
This photo was taken on
Rebecca's birthday, July 22, 2007,
which was also the anniversary of
the trial date in Roe v Wade, at
Crossroads Pregnancy Center's
Annual Garden Party. This photo
was possible because abortion
had been illegal.
Rebecca Kiessling's Story on CBN's "The 700 Club" (first aired July 28, 2009)
Professional photos by:
www.arisingimages.com
Thanx Prem!
This program is from RealCatholicTV.com
Full speech with faith testimony!
Click bottom right corner to enlarge

POINTS OF INTEREST INFO FOR PROMOTING EVENTS WITH REBECCA:
(for her story, please read it below, or go to Rebecca Kiessling's writings page for her adoption poetry, letter from her birthmother, and her essay, "The
Centrality of Adoption for Christians.")

*Pro-Life Speaker and Adoption Speaker since 1995 -- Right to Life and crisis pregnancy center, fundraisers, rallies, churches, high
schools, universities, women's conferences, attorney conferences, adoption events, etc., throughout the U.S., Canada, Ireland, Scotland,

*Author of the Heritage House '76 pamphlet "Conceived in Rape: A Story of Hope" (Rebecca Kiessling's personal story of having been
conceived in rape and nearly aborted at two back-alley abortionists.)

*Honored by Feminists for Life as one of their internationally-named "Remarkable Pro-Life Women" and their"poster child" for the
rape-exception poster "Did I Deserve the Death Penalty?"  Get copies to promote your event with Rebecca Kiessling by going to
www.FeministsforLife.org

*Appeared on CBN's "The 700 Club"  (click here to view), Good Morning America, CNN's Talk Back Live, CBS News, Canada's 100 Huntley Street, EWTN's
Life on the Rock, Catholic TV's "This is the Day" (click here to view episode) and Facing Life Head-On (click here to view episode) as a pro-life attorney
and as a child conceived in rape

*Story featured in Glamour Magazine -- My Father is a Rapist, Marie Claire Magazine -- I Was Born of My Mother's Rape, and with her birthmother on the
syndicated program Extra -- Rebecca's Story

*Wrote a 43-page essay, "The Right of the Unborn Child Not to be Unjustly Killed -- a philosophy of rights approach" (See Philosophical Abortion Essay
page)  

*Adopted two children (with same birth mother) in open adoptions, was adopting two others (Cassie, who was born with special needs who died at 33 days
old, and a foster child who was ultimately adopted by another family in a better placement for her needs), and gave birth to three biological children
(second-generation abortion survivors.)  Recently lost two precious babies in the first trimester.

*Family law attorney with four pro bono cases of international attention all involving the protection of preborn human life, including the "frozen embryo"
case in Michigan.  Two of those cases involved rape and abortion.  Also, represented a woman sued for not aborting.  (practiced law as "Rebecca Wasser"
before she married)

*Served as vice-chair of a crisis pregnancy center for two years and on the advisory board of Michigan Nurses for Life

*Currently serves on the Advisory Board of Crossroads Pregnancy Center

*Conducts workshops, "An Abortion-Minded Client's Life-Giving Legal Options" based on Michigan law.

*Testified before the Ohio Legislature on the Prefer Childbirth Over Abortion legislation which would, in part, remove the rape exception from the ban on
Medicaid funding of abortions in Ohio

* Married for 11 years, home school mother of 5 -- the oldest is 10.

No attachments please:
rebecca@rebeccakiessling.com
Speech as a member of the Conceived in Rape panel at
Expectant Mother Care's fundraiser in Yonkers, NY in March, 2010