We are urging Congress to approve the Heartbeat Bill which would protect unborn children who have a detectable heartbeat, without exceptions.
Save The 1 is a global pro-life organization of over 600 of us who were conceived in rape like me, or conceived in incest or 
sex trafficking and mothers who became pregnant by rape, incest or sex trafficking who are either raising their children, birth mothers, miscarried, or post-abortive and mourn the loss of their children. Additionally, we have hundreds who were told by physicians to abort due to a pre-natal diagnosis, along with their children who were targeted by doctors. We specialize in defending all of the so-called “hard cases” in the abortion debate through sharing our personal stories, and we additionally act as a support network. Please do not add deadly discrimination into the Heartbeat bill — because our hearts beat too!
As a pro-life attorney, this is why I went to law school. I was protected by Michigan law when my birth mother sought to kill me at two illegal abortions. As a rape victim, she was not offered any help or hope — just abortion. My life was spared for a purpose, and for such a time as this I will use my life, my talents, my expertise and law degree to save others.
When exceptions are added, the abortion clinic becomes the sole arbiter of whether a woman was raped and whether her child is to suffer the death penalty for the alleged crimes of his or her biological father. This clearly violates the 14th Amendments’ due process and equal protection provisions.
The targeting of our people groups for exclusion of protection, and in fact, for government-approved killing is clearly discriminatory. The sting of this discrimination not only affects every unborn child who is deemed to fit into these legislative categories of rape, incest or fetal abnormality, but is lifelong – affecting every person born who was conceived in rape or given a challenging pre-natal diagnosis by a physician. Additionally, it causes anguish to the mothers who became pregnant by rape or who were told by doctors to abort. They grieve at how their children are so quickly devalued by politicians and within the law.
Permitting abortion for rape, incest and fetal abnormalities sends a message to our people groups that our lives are worth less than anyone else’s. Imagine having an exception in cases of Asian babies, Jewish babies, or left-handed babies. The message sent is that these people are not worthy of living and did not deserve to be protected like everyone else. There would be an international outcry if such discrimination against these other people groups were even proposed. Yet, it is the same for us, and we feel the sting of such hatred against or apathy toward our lives.
The rape survivor mothers and those told by doctors to abort grieve how their children are systematically targeted and devalued. The rape victim mothers are not believed they were raped because they didn’t abort and because they actually love their children.
We appreciate concern for pregnant rape victims, but they are four times more likely to die within the next year after an abortion, as opposed to giving birth. In Dr. David Reardon’s book, Victims andVictors: Speaking Out About Their Pregnancies, Abortions and Children ResultingFrom Sexual Assault, he cites the research done on the subject. After an abortion, rape victims have higher rates of murder, suicide, drug overdose, etc.. Rapists, child molesters and sex traffickers love abortion, which destroys the evidence and enables them to continue perpetrating. Sexual predators depend upon abortion clinics because the abortion protects them – not the pregnant rape victim.
Tragically, it is at times a girl’s own mother who has been either trafficking her or leaving her unprotected. It is always the baby who exposes the rape, who delivers the pregnant mother out of the abusive situation, protecting her and bringing her healing. If legislators truly care about rape victims, then they must protect her from the rapist and from the abortion, and not the baby! Her baby is not the enemy, despite what exceptions suggest.
A child’s God-given right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness should never be denied because of his or her disability or circumstances of conception. His or her value is not based on what he or she is able to do or the behavior of his or her parents; rather, it is based on his or her humanity and that the child has been endowed by his or her Creator with these inalienable rights.
Children conceived in rape are often called dehumanizing names such as:
“Demon seed,” “evil seed,” “horrible reminder,” “rapist’s child” (an insult to every rape victim mother who knows that this is her child,) “monster’s child,” “demon spawn,” “Satan’s child,” “tainting the gene pool,” and on and on. Exceptions within the law suggest there is something inherently different about the child conceived in rape that they would be unworthy of protection. To legislate that aborting us is “medically necessary” further suggests that we are somehow medically harming our mothers — furthering the notion that we are somehow the ones raping our mothers. But we are entirely innocent and we plead our innocence.
While some states like Michigan, Georgia and Nebraska do not have a single rape exception within the law, there are other jurisdictions where the child conceived in rape is singled-out and systematically targeted for extermination. This lack of equal protection undeniably feeds into the discrimination within the culture. It codifies hatred, fear and prejudice against an innocent child. And it sanctions modern-day child sacrifice.
A civilized nation must protect the lives of the innocent and disabled child, not target them for extermi
nation and codify hatred. It is barbaric to punish an innocent child for someone else’s crime. Congress should focus us on punishing rapists, not babies and must focus on protecting lives of the innocent and not the interests of the abortion industry. More violence does not bring healing, but only more pain, more destruction and a less empathetic society.
BIO: Rebecca Kiessling, conceived in rape, is a pro-life attorney, international pro-life speaker, wife and mother of 5. She is the president and founder of Save The 1.
