Posted on 06/09/2014 6:11:45 AM PDT by wagglebee
How would like to be labeled “a hard case?” What if your class of people were systematically targeted for extinction within legislation?
What if political candidates felt quite comfortable with stating their position that you and your kind aren’t worth protecting and better off dead? What if your child was regularly stigmatized by our society?
That’s exactly what it’s like for those of us who were conceived in rape, mothers from rape, and those given a poor in utero diagnosis. But being branded as a “hard case” becomes easier when we all begin to unite behind our unique kinship. And that’s what Save The 1 has been doing – drawing together perhaps the most stigmatized and marginalized members of today’s society.
May 2014 was a very big month for Save The 1. On Saturday, May 3rd, Mary Rathke and I both spoke at the 1st Annual International Pro-Life Leaders Conference in Rome, Italy – sponsored by Lifesitenews — sharing our stories of having been conceived in rape. Mary was a double-exception because her birthmother was raped after having been diagnosed as schizophrenic. Pro-Life leaders from around the world received our message well – vowing to fight abortion without exception and without compromise.
The next day, Mary and I were introduced on stage at the Marcio Per La Vita – the Italian March For Life, which had an estimated 60,000 by the time we reached St. Peter’s Square, where the Pope came out and addressed us. The theme of this year’s march was “Pro Vita Senza Compromesso,” which means “pro-life without compromise.” During the march, thousands were chanting this theme!
One woman – a nurse – came up to us and showed us a photo of a baby who was conceived in rape. She explained that the pro-life activists at the hospital have been familiar with my story since it’s been translated into Italian, among many other languages.
So any time they have a patient who is pregnant by rape, they share my story on my website with the pregnant rape victim. This nurse credited my story has having saved the baby in the photo. What a wonderful example for every person with a difficult history to see how stepping out and sharing your story can make a difference across the ocean, for someone else who doesn’t even speak your language!
Upon returning from Rome, Mary Rathke spoke at Branch County Right to Life’s benefit dinner where she met a grandmother who shared that her grandchild was conceived in rape. This grandmother was heartened to know that there are others who are paving the way for her grandchild to be loved and accepted in our society. Several legislators and even judges shared with Mary how her story helps them to be able to articulate a defense of all human life.
On May 10th, I spoke at a Mother’s Day brunch at Gateway Assembly in Imlay City, MI. After the brunch, a 16 year old girl named Sarah came up to me to share her own difficult story. She was conceived when her birthmother was sexually trafficked by her own parents. Not only was she conceived during unconsensual prostitution, but her birthmother had become a drug addict. Sarah is now writing out her story and is our newest member of Save The 1! The next day at the church, another family approached me whose young adoptive daughter was also conceived in rape. They too were thankful for a support system for their daughter and their family.
A week later, on Saturday, May 17th, Save The 1 had its 3rd Pro-Life Speaker Training Conference, at the legislative offices of Right to Life of Michigan in Lansing, MI. We had five adoptees who were all conceived in rape present – me, Mary Rathke, Travon Clifton, Sarah (these four are all from Michigan), and Darlene Pawlik from New Hampshire. We also had one mother who had become pregnant from rape – Karyn Liechty, one post-abortive mother from rape whose abortion was forced upon her – Sheryl Williams, as well as Brad and Jesi Smith whose daughter Faith has Trisome 18.
In the morning, everyone had a chance to practice responding to impromptu questions often asked by reporters and during Q & A on college campuses, and in the afternoon, each member gave an 8-minute prepared speech. We were blessed to have some family and friends there in support, as well as three of our friends from Right to Life of Michigan who helped with our critique – President Barb Listing, Ed Rivet and Genevieve Marnon. As an additional treat, filmmaker Jim Hanon (End of the Spear) and his team were present filming and we look forward to seeing the pieces he is putting together for Right to Life of Michigan in conjunction with Save The 1 members!
After a wonderful day of camaraderie, we had our first official Board Meeting, having just filed our 501c3 application! Thank you to the Thomas More Society for generously sponsoring our filing and to Sally Wagenmaker for your wisdom and representation. I’m proud to announce our stellar Board – Darlene Pawlik, Mary Rathke, Jim Sable (conceived in rape adoptee from IL,) Nick D’Angelo (conceived in rape from NY,) Brad Smith, Dyanne Gonzales from NM, and me – thank you all for your confidence in electing me as President of Save The 1. I’m eager to see what God is going to achieve through us all!
Our next Save The 1 speaker training conference is Saturday, September 20th in Akron, OH at the offices of Right to Life of North East Ohio, and our 5th Save The 1 speaker training will be held at the offices of Georgia Right to Life in Atlanta on Friday, October 10th. In 2015, we hope to have more conferences around the country, including in the Los Angeles area.
If you fall into one of the categories of “the hard cases” – those whom Jesus would call “the least of these,” we would love to connect with you! You are not alone. Connect with us on our Save The 1 Facebook page, and e-mail me. We have a Save The 1 activism e-mail group, and there is also an e-mail support group for those who are struggling and/or who want to help others to know their incredible dignity and worth.
LifeNews Note: Rebecca Kiessling is an attorney and noted pro-life speaker who was born after her mother was a victim of rape.
What if political candidates felt quite comfortable with stating their position that you and your kind aren’t worth protecting and better off dead? What if your child was regularly stigmatized by our society?
The pro-life movement CANNOT allow for any "exceptions"!
Who KNOWS what kind of EVIL that lovely Mary and Sarah will get into during their lives?
This is not an argument for allowing abortion, so please don’t read it that way. However, in terms of the rape, incest, life of the mother position on abortion, I want to take issue with the “incest” part of that equation. It doesn’t really belong as part of the discussion.
The only incest that should matter would be if we were talking about a rape. If we’re talking about adults making a decision to copulate, then it really doesn’t matter if they’re related. It’s not like relatives are more likely to be ignorant of the facts of life.
So, if it’s willing sex between relatives, then it should be no excuse for ending a baby’s life.
If it is rape, one relative imposing him/her self on another relative, then it falls under rape and not under incest.
So, those of you who follow the rape/incest/life of mother dictum, please drop incest from the equation. Your argument really should be rape/life of mother.
This “rape and incest” argument is not a genuine one by the pro abortion side. They are being deceitful when they imply that they want to protect the unborn, but that pesky rape and incest issue prevents them. “After all, how can we force a woman who has been raped to have the child? And that is just what those “pro-life extremists” want.”
I say we need to call their bluff. Ask each pro-”choice” activist and politician if they will accept a total ban on abortions except in the case where the mother’s life is in danger and in the case of rape and incest. Write up a constitutional amendment and ask them to support it. After all, now that the rape and incest victims you so deeply “care about” are protected, all obstacles to protecting innocent, unborn children are removed.
They will, of course, reject this compromise, because they don’t give a rat’s behind about rape victims, but are only cynically using them as an excuse to make it seem like they are taking the moral high ground. “We’re not killing babies, we are protecting rape victims.”
While the pro-abortion people will never accept this, it will help us win over people in the middle, by exposing them as hypocrites and liars.
Also, while I believe all abortions (accept to save the mother’s life) are immoral, if the other side agreed to a total ban, with a rape and incest exception it would be immoral for us NOT to agree to it.
I estimate the rape and incest account for roughly 1,000 abortions per year, out of the over 1,000,000 in the US each year, which means only about 1 in 1,000 abortions from pregnancies as the result of rape.
Suppose 1,000 children were about to be murdered and we had a the ability to rescue only 999 of them and 1 would have to be left behind. Would it be more moral to let all 1,000 perish or save the 999 and, regretfully allow the 1 we could not save to die?
I also believe that if all other abortions were banned, a large majority of rape victims would choose to bring their babies to term and either raise them of give them up for adoption.
In the current environment, where over 1,000,000 women have abortions every year, mostly for convenience or economic reasons, I think it is hard to blame a rape victim for thinking she is entitled to one. After all, she has a far more compelling reason than 99% of the others.
If abortions were incredibly rare, I think rape victims would generally think differently and most would choose life. In addition, from a practical standpoint, those who wanted abortions might have difficult finding abortionists, once the all the massive profits of the abortion industry have dried up.
I’ve made that point, as well. Incest is either rape - forcible or statutory - or it’s legal, consensual sex.
ya think?
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I disagree on this one.. rape & incest I’d have to leave to the victim.
Why?
Rape and incest are NON-CAPITAL crimes, why does an innocent child deserve the death penalty when the father only faces prison?
Is not the baby a victim of the same crime as the mother?
Why are the mother's wishes more important than the baby's life?
What a message!
Stand up for the life of unborn babies!
It’s not the baby’s crime. Why should the baby be killed?
When a woman reports a rape when it occurs, won't the treatment she gets prevent most pregnancies? After that point, rape or incest should not be reasons for abortion.
If it were handled that way, rapes would ha reported when they occurred, thus cutting down on those she said-he said situations that too often happen. It would also make it more likely to prosecute those who commit rape.
This may be the best article about this issue that I have ever read. I can’t imagine how anyone could have a heart so hard as to be unaffected by it.
Thanks for posting it!
Wags, a lot has gone on here in the year and a half that you were off.
Did you ever thing you would see so many pro-abort comments? Here at FR of all places?
Times have changed.
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