Since returning home from my recent visit to Chile, I’ve been attacked in social media, along with Diana Contreras — a Chilean mother who miscarried after rape — because we both met with a pro-life presidential candidate (José Antonio Kast) during my visit, and the largest newspaper in Chile ran an article about it. So we have seen a lot of extremely vicious words from others. Though it’s not uncommon for abortion rights advocates to behave this way, I realize this is not something to which many are accustomed. Good people of faith are alarmed to see such hateful and vile words come out of people.First of all, we did nothing wrong. Yes we are under attack, but we are innocent, and I know that God is working this all out for good. The voices of hatred and death may sound louder, but there are many quiet people who are watching, who perhaps are unsure as to how they feel about this issue. Now they are observing the unmitigated hatred toward us, and I know with confidence that this is ultimately eliciting more sympathy for innocent children conceived in rape and the mothers who love them. Decent people do not enjoy seeing others being attacked so viciously.
Do you recall seeing vampire movies where someone pulls out a crucifix and holds it up to the vampire and the vampire shrieks? Then the vampire begins to burn because now the vampire has been faced with ultimate truth and knows the power of the Cross. This is what is happening now in this battle to defend life. Instead of a crucifix, we put the face of the child conceived in rape before them, as well as the face of the mothers who love their children, and the abortion advocates are terrified because they know the power of our testimonies. They want to silence us and bully us into submission. They want us to be afraid. They want me to be afraid to ever come back to Chile.
But when I was threatened by this same spirit of death in someone from Poland who “offered” to break my legs for me if I followed through with coming to Poland, I stepped onto my airplane with legs strong and firm because I know truth is on my side and love is stronger. Besides, I knew something special was going to happen there because the voices of hate were so loud. In fact, they were shrieking like a vampire.
It is good that we are relevant and that we have taken the battle to the enemy. We do not want to be like a sports team who comes together before the game for a huddle to talk strategy with the coach and the team captain, but then they never go out onto the field to engage their opponent.
Right now, we are engaging the opponent and others are watching this epic match. Some are trying to ascertain which team should have their allegiance. These spectators see us engage with honor. The opponents demonstrate poor sportsmanship — truly crude behavior — and those watching the match don’t like that. So always remember that there are multitudes watching and we are winning people over.
This engagement will make us stronger. It is like weight training. You lift weights which tears down the muscles, but this resistance training ultimately results in the muscles being built up stronger. This is what is occurring with us. It may seem painful and unpleasant at the time. We could be in the gym and wonder why we are putting ourselves through such a difficult workout. But we know that in the end, we will be made stronger and again, others observe and admire and respect our commitment, our tenacity.
“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” — Galatians 6:9
Many of the recent negative comments are suggesting that we are celebrating rape because I, and others, value my life, or they say that others are promoting rape by sharing my story. I explain that just because you celebrate firefighters does not mean that you advocate arson. While it’s true that without arson, there would be no firefighters, it’s absurd to suggest that anyone who likes firefighters is pro-arson. Admiring doctors who heal does not make you pro-disease.
The same holds true when we value the life of a child conceived in rape. Of course we are not pro-rape! In fact, giving birth typically ends the rape for many young victims of assault. Supporting abortion is actually pro-rape, because it protects and enables rapists, child molesters and sex traffickers.
Some of the other comments suggest that we don’t care about women, and especially rape victims. First of all, Diana and I are both women, so the irony and hypocrisy should be obvious. Secondly, I have hundreds of friends now who are rape survivors who either love their children whom they are raising, are birth mothers from rape, mourn the loss of that child through miscarriage, or regret aborting after being raped. These women are precious to me. My own dear mother is a rape victim. I’ve advocated globally for laws to protect rape survivor mothers and their children from the rapist having parental rights. These advocates for death have no idea what they are saying by throwing such nonsense out there in a futile attempt to silence us.
We are the true feminists because we encourage women and tell them, “You are stronger than you think! I believe in you. You CAN do this!” Meanwhile, the abortion advocates continually suggest that women are weak and pathetic and that they must necessarily be afraid of a baby — a baby!!! They teach women hatred. They turn them into killers. They encourage victimizing someone smaller and defenseless. How is this pro-woman? It’s not.
If you want to see strong women, just take a look at the women who have shared their “difficult cases” stories through Save The 1. They courageously share their stories and their love of life, while opening themselves up for attack from the forces of death. But love wins because love is stronger than violence, fear and hatred, and we won’t be silenced!
BIO: Rebecca Kiessling is an international pro-life speaker, attorney, wife, mother of 5,
founder and President of Save The 1, co-founder of Hope After Rape Conception, co-founder of Embryo Defense, and author of the Heritage House ’76 pamphlet “Conceived in Rape: A Story of Hope.” Visit her website at www.rebeccakiessling.com
