Friday, January 30, 2015

Putting A Face to the Issue Through Ads by Mary Rathke

The only way to overturn Roe v Wade is to stop the exceptions!
 Did you know that Norma McCorvey – “Jane Roe” -- was told by her lawyers to say she was gang-raped, in order to make her case stronger to obtain an abortion?  Today, her daughter is alive because the Texas Court protected them both from that abortion.
As a woman who was conceived in rape, I find myself sharing my story over and over again at many pro-life events.  I have to ask, “Are you pro-life except in the case of Mary?”  I know that about 60% of people who claim to be pro-life are okay with exceptions, but after they hear real life stories like mine, only 1% will still believe in exceptions.
Living in the great state of Michigan, I have learned significantly about pro-life politics surrounding this issue. Michigan has never passed a pro-life law with an exception.  When the Michigan Legislature tried to pass a pro-life law in 2013, the Governor would not sign it because there was not a rape exception. So instead of submitting one, Right to Life of Michigan put together a petition drive. Once they had enough signatures, it was sent back to the Legislature. Of course, those on the left began to yell out, “What about in cases of rape?” Again, instead of adding an exception to the bill, those of us from Save The 1, who are conceived in rape, mothers from rape, or post-abortive from rape, held a press conference to explain that our lives matter.  The discussion quickly shifted, and the bill passed – with no exceptions!
This, my friends, is how we are going to overturn Roe v Wade -- not by saying abortion is okay in some cases, but rather explaining to everyone that we fight for life because we truly believe that every life matters. To further the discussion, Right to Life of Michigan has produced some beautiful 30-second TV ads which tell the stories of women conceived in rape.  My friend Travon Clifton’s story and my own story are being aired throughout the state.  Right to Life of Michigan President Barbara Listing said, "Those in favor of abortion have pointed to survivors of rape to justify legalized abortion. There is a misconception that women who become pregnant from rape want to abort their children. This is a false stereotype not supported by fact."  You can see more about what they are calling the “Compassion Project” by visiting www.RTL.org. Besides the 30-second ads, our 5-minute stories can be viewed there as well. 
We cannot overturn a law that was based on a woman's claim of being raped, by continuing to allow rape exceptions.  Instead of offering confused compassion to the rape victim by letting her believe that even pro-lifers think her child deserves death, we need to care for both victims, so they can both be survivors and overcomers. The woman needs real help to deal with her extraordinary crisis. We need to offer that help, counseling and support.  The child simply needs life.  We need to educate everyone that they can have compassion and understand -- even my life matters.
BIO:  Mary Rathke is a wife, mother of 4, ordained minister at Bay Valley Christian Church, and pro-life speaker and blogger for Save The 1.  She's also the President of HELP People Inc., serving the hungry and homeless.  Her website is www.maryrathke.org.
 
 
 
 
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Thursday, January 29, 2015

The ULTIMATE Medical Cure Is Now.....DEATH??? by Jesi Smith

 You go to the doctor with a chronic headache and he suggests cutting off your head. The doctor assures you that this will put a permanent end to your headaches. Sounds crazy, but that is the same logic the medical community often uses with the biologically imperfect. Your baby has a heart condition, chromosomal abnormality, missing a limb, blind, or deaf? No problem, there is a final solution that will completely cure your child – death.
Over a year ago a new friend needed help.  Her daughter was diagnosed with Trisomy 18 and struggling to survive.  She went to the hospital with her infant and was told that her daughter was too small to receive any of the tests requested by her pediatrician.  The doctors at the hospital were going to send her home, but instead her mother followed sound advice from another parent and transferred to a different hospital.  Once at the other hospital, the little girl was examined and immediately intubated because she had been struggling to breathe.  It was determined that her jaw was too short and she needed surgery quickly.  In fact, the infant had jaw distraction surgery just 2 days later which lengthened her jaw and opened up her airway so she could breathe.  The first hospital which also performed jaw distraction surgeries was sending this infant child with Trisomy 18 home knowing full well that the child would die without medical attention.  Death was their cure, but thankfully with appropriate help this little girl is now almost a year and a half old and doing well.
The medical doctrine of biological superiority can be seen crystal clear in prenatal tests that search out the disabled for the primary purpose and devastating result of destroying them. Exactly how developments and innovations in the field of medicine are to be developed with various disabilities when the patients are routinely terminated is an awful dilemma. Armed with only the knowledge of how to single out the weak, but not how to treat them has turned medicine into a bizarre pseudoscience that destroys those they cannot understand and do not wish to treat. Really – when did the disabled become too risky for society to tolerate? Certainly, tyrants, the violent, liars, thieves, even the self-righteous are bigger threats to society than these vulnerable individuals. Imagine a world where they could find a genetic code for all of the undesirable traits in people…would any of us survive?
When medical tests, especially prenatal tests, become more important for our academic research than for the human being they are being performed on we have an ugly problem. We become like the unmonitored medical ministers of death in the 1940’s who deliberately infected their patients with disease and subjected vulnerable people to cruel experiments and ‘treatments’ all under the guise of furthering medical research. We would be foolish to believe that a medical community is willing to help all of humanity if it refuses to help the human being right in front of them.  They are like miners panning for gold that hold onto the dust and dump the gold.
We have made the womb into a hunting ground for the disabled child who has no means of escape. Do we find the death of the sick, weak, deformed more humane than their life and preservation? We have become a society more frightened of “wrongful birth” than deliberate death.
We have even expunged the verbal language that represents mercy from society so that we will not be confronted with our own barbarism. Starving a disabled child to death can now be called comfort care. Medically prescribed overdose can be called hospice. Heartbreaking suicide can be labeled death with dignity. There used to be a time when those who were weak, sick, and without hope were given help not offered death.
The destruction of the disabled is a crime without a name to represent its horror, like the Holocaust or homicide. Raphael Lemkin, a Polish Jew, found that language did not have a word to adequately describe the brutal annihilation of certain groups of people and coined the term genocide. The Greek word genos, (tribe or race), was added to the Latin word cide, (killing).  The conscience of our society no longer wishes to be pin pricked with words that awaken our shame and insist on changing the language instead of our actions. The deliberate and systematic destruction of the disabled and unwanted should have its own chilling name to combat the sinister silence with which society treats their deaths.
Who will bear witness for the weak and most vulnerable people? What if we have terminated the best among us? What if they were the smartest, kindest, most beautiful souls? How would the world be different if the millions of people that have been destroyed would have lived?
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Sunday, January 25, 2015

I Have a Fire in My Belly After The March For Life by Patti Smith


Now I'm home from the LCMS conference and the 2015 March for Life.  My heart and mind is just overflowing -- what I heard and learned, and the people I spoke with, the worship services, the fire in my belly rekindled for Life and most of all for service to the Lord.

I was very humbled and kind of blown away when a Pastor from Montana and his teen daughter pulled me aside and asked me for 5 minutes of my time.  He said he heard me speak about rape and incest exceptions during the Q and A time with Carol Tobias from National Right to Life Conference - NRLC, and he was very challenged and impressed.  He asked me how we can bridge the divide and the conflict within the pro-life movement.  How can we create an atmosphere of mutual cooperation with such differing views of HOW to be an advocate both in our own lives, in our communities, churches and in our government?   That was a huge question, and having no real answer at the time, I asked HIM what  his thoughts were.  I want to hear from other people because, honestly, I felt I really am not the one to give these answers!  

He was insightful and very informative, suggesting books and other works for me to read.  His daughter who was maybe 20, was so knowledgeable about government, history of abortion, and legislation, and like so many millennials, has grasped and embraced on to this present Social Injustice - the right to life for all with a zeal which inspires me.  And I saw that same zeal and conviction in the youth with whom I spoke and heard from at the convention.  Hope arises!!!    

So -- what do I do with all this?  What is my action plan moving forward?  I've been up all night (jet lag and Charlie horse in my leg,) my mind filled with thoughts like: how ARE we going to reverse Roe v. Wade?  How ARE we going to present legislation that is 100% pro-life with no exceptions?   And how on earth will that ever get passed?   Then I thought, what do I know about how our government works?  What do I really know about abortion?  What do I know about who the movers and shakers are and HOW do they do what they do?

Beyond my known calling for pro-life work as an adoptee conceived in rape and as a Lutheran, what is MY role in all of this?  What is MY "assignment from God," as it were?  How does my voice, my life and my convictions fit within this massive puzzle of being an advocate for life?   

I always tend to see the Big Picture, and then I get overwhelmed. I fail to stop and roll it back a bit and look at the details and breaking issues down to "doable" chunks of time and effort.   I think, I'm just one person, what can I possibly do?  I'm not a lawyer, I'm not a politician, I have not even gone to college. I am one person, with a heart that is bursting with zeal for my country, for freedom and for protecting and honoring that very basic freedom -- the right to life for all -- with no exceptions. 

After spending the night thinking, taking notes on my thoughts, one thing is clear:  I need to get that "education."   In order to be a responsible advocate for life, to speak to life issues, to educate others, I must educate myself -- learn the basics, learn more.  What is abortion, how is abortion performed, what are the "complications" of abortion? I bought the book "Complications" at the conference.  I need to learn about bioethics, about how our government works, about what rights we have and what rights are incrementally being taken away,and about how to be an advocate. I need to learn from those who have gone before me, and to learn from those movers and shakers we have in the pro-life arena right now.  I need to learn who my legislators are and what their stand on life issues are.  I need to learn from history, from heroes of the faith, and from those who have declared war on humanity.  I need to learn from current events to those from antiquity, and how to gather support from constituents and lawmakers. I need to learn how to communicate in rational, convincing ways. I need to learn how to bridge the divide opening doors for dialogue and exchange of ideas, respecting other views, while not being shaken in my own moral stand. Then when I am myself educated, then I can best educate others.  I can go and be a stronger voice. 

I have not completed my training with Lutherans For Life -- but will commit to doing that, which is one of my first steps in my learning commitment. 

It has become clear to me that having a life team at my own church may not become a reality -- agreeing with my pastor that we already have "life teams.” He says every ministry IS a life team, and that is true.  I want to support in every way the "life teams" which exist in my church -- the quilting crafters who make projects that support the crisis pregnancy shelter and center which our church supports, our youth group who does many of the outreach projects that I read about in the LFL materials detailing life group activities, our grief group which reaches out to those struggling with loss, our community life group which runs the food pantry for the homeless – etc, etc..  They are all essentially life groups.   So perhaps forming a Lutherans for Life Chapter in Southern California -- Orange County would be prudent.  

But first things first.  I'm getting my own house in order -- preparing the way of the Lord by educating myself, listening and learning from others, reading, studying, grounding myself in God's word which is a lamp unto my path and praying more than I have ever prayed before. I am continuing to sidewalk counsel at Planned Parenthood for that is one place where I learn life lessons on advocacy the most.  I partner with other organizations, always learning, always listening, always asking questions -- opening my mind to new ways of being that voice for life and freedom, and surrendering my life, my talents, my resources and my convictions to the Lord of Life - through with His strength, I can do all things. 

Please pray for me as I resume this journey, one step at a time, with renewed conviction and this Holy Fire in my belly to go forth and be the light and voice for the "least of these."  I don't know what God has in store for the rest of my life, but I know that if I stay in His light and in his precepts, and guided by the Holy Spirit, God can use me in amazing ways for His kingdom of life and to His glory.   

So -- on to step one. Learn. Complete my LFL training. Learn more. And pray without ceasing. God is going to do amazing things because He is an amazing GOD!!!

Stay tuned -- Patti's on fire.
 
BIO:  Patti Smith is an adoptee who was conceived in rape, and a worship leader for a Lutheran church in Huntington Beach, California.  She's active with Lutherans For Life, a sidewalk counselor, as well as a pro-life speaker and blogger for Save The 1.
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Sunday, January 18, 2015

Let's Have a Conversation ~By Darlene Pawlik



I really hate politics.  The whole idea of manipulating people to achieve a goal is nauseating to me.  Playing people like chess, politicians use misinformation and disinformation far too often.
Lest you think Pro-Life advocates are pure and undiluted, let’s look at HR36.
Congress put forth a bill in 2013 called the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (PCUCPA). The Act proposed to ban abortion after 20 weeks gestation because a substantial body of scientific evidence found children of this age have increased sensitivity to pain.  At the 11th hour, Eric Cantor put in an exception for rape and incest.  He spoke on center stage at the March For Life in Washington DC, shortly thereafter. Is this an example of the kind of politics of access we find among those calling themselves ProLife?
The bill had no chance of passing and even if by some circumstance it did, the President promised to veto it.  So, what was the message?  The message is that the major Pro-Life groups are in favor of abortion for rape or incest conceived babies. Is there a question here?
In 2015, the PCUCPA was reintroduced with the exceptions intact.  Instead of using it as a conversation starter, major Pro-Life groups immediately sent out emails to their constituents, with not a word of the flaws, that this is a chance to save babies from abortion.  The flaws: rape conceived babies feel pain too, it sets guidelines for approved killing of children in the womb prior to 20 weeks, it has provisions for the dismemberment and disposal of children, if carrying them to term might cause the mother harm.

Any real doctor could deliver a baby in the latter circumstance and if the baby were too young and died as a result, there has been no intentional murder.  This is not the language of the bill in question.  These major groups surely have lawyers. Even if we were to believe that no legal person read the bill for them, I cannot get past the clear ethical violations to our Pro-Life Principles.
I am of average intelligence.  The glaring flaws of this piece of eckhumm, legislation were immediately apparent to me.  And what of those emails sent by the major Pro-Life groups? What was their purpose?  In every case, there was an appeal to help fund the fight to get more legislation like this passed.  I really find it astonishing that this is the kind of legislation we would want passed, if we are working day after day to stop the horror of abortion in our country.
Disillusioned? Me too.  This bill will not save one baby.  However, when I sent a note to request that ProLife organizations demand the exceptions be removed, I got a mindless response stating and I quote, “This will save 18,000 babies.” Really?  That’s quite a claim. Was this misinformation or disinformation and if we believe that it could possibly be true, on what basis?
This is purely political manipulation.  The hundreds of thousands of people who will be in DC for the March for Life believe in their leaders.  They flock to initiatives and conferences and send their hard-earned money to work toward an America that doesn’t promote government-sanctioned and government-funded genocide.  The Pro-Life organizations do a lot of good work toward building a culture that respects life, unless like me, that little person was conceived by rape.
Let’s think about that for a moment.  Biologically speaking, if we simply ignore the mode of conception, prenatal development doesn’t differ depending on how that baby was initially formed.  My biological father is a monster, but should I deserve the death penalty for his crime?
We are talking about 20 weeks in this discussion.  There have been many stories of babies not much older, being born and going home to a happy life.  Are we really suggesting that at the point of development when science has determined a child can feel the most excruciating pain it should be ok to kill them at all?  This is the discussion we should be having.  This is what the major Pro-Life groups should keep in front of the American people.
What if the abortion vendors promised to anesthetize the babies before hacking their arms and legs off and crushing their sculls?  That would solve the dilemma of aborting pain capable children.  No. We are not Pro-Life because we don’t want people to experience pain.  We are Pro-Life because we believe people are of inestimable value; created in the image of God.
This discussion could be just as powerful to raise funds and way more powerful to influence the culture to respect life, if it were consistent.  How logical is it to say that some crisis pregnancies involve a baby worth saving and some do not?  It completely undermines the whole point.  If we believe that children are created in the image of God, then how can we postulate the concept that there would be exceptions?
Let’s continue the conversation.  Some may say I have no right to say a woman who has conceived a child by rape should carry to term.  I have been a nurse for more than 25 years.  So, I understand that the complications of abortion vs term pregnancy are grave.  I have five children.  I had no easy pregnancies.  My first child was conceived as a result of human sex trafficking in my teens.  I know how horrible rape is.  I know what it is like to be in a crisis pregnancy and I know that you can go through to the other side with honor and dignity.
Differences of opinion abound on innumerable subjects, but when it comes to life and death, shouldn’t all ProLife advocates be trying to protect all lives?  There are so many ways to advance the cause of life.  How would you do it?


Darlene Pawlik is a Savethe1 speaker and blogger, a woman conceived by a brutal rape and sold into sex trafficking.  She turned her life over to God. She is currently on the board of Savethe1, Chair of the NHRTL Educational Trust, a practicing nurse, a wife of almost 25 years and mother of five grown children and grandmother of two.
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Saturday, January 17, 2015

You Want Us To Compromise Our Pro-Life Values MORE?!!! By Rebecca Kiessling

Pro-life leaders, pundits and bloggers are up in arms now because Republican Congresswoman Renee Ellmers -- NC, (along with at least five other female Republicans,) is protesting the terms of the rape exception within the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act – H.R. 36, also known as the 20-week abortion ban.  As written, the late-term abortion in the case of rape or incest is permitted “if the rape is reported any time prior to the abortion to an appropriate law enforcement agency.”  To be clear, given the plain language of the legislation, there’s no time frame as to when the rape must be reported, the bill doesn’t require that the rape victim actually report the rape herself, and there’s no requirement that the reporting must be done in person.  Accordingly, an abortion clinic employee could “report the rape” (wink-wink) by telephone, just seconds before the late-term abortion takes place.

This overly-permissive language certainly opens the door for late-term abortions on demand, for any reason, which is why closet pro-choicers always want a rape exception – to open the door.  Women will be told to lie, just like Jane Roe (Norma McCorvey) of Roe v Wade was told by her lawyers to lie in order to obtain an abortion.  In addition, there is absolutely no sense of due process involved in this death penalty decree for children conceived in rape.  Can you imagine if Congress introduced a bill stating that a rapist could be put to death -- just with the requirement that a rape be “reported”?!  But according to the U.S. Supreme Court, rapists don’t deserve the death penalty, and even for child molesters, it’s “cruel and unusual punishment.”  Yet, the Congressional GOP will summarily issue the death penalty to the innocent child.  Never mind that children conceived in rape feel pain too, we can just go ahead and suffer for all they care.  And such exceptions are also violative of the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection clause.
But Ellmers and the other female lawmakers want the liberal reporting requirement to be completely removed.  She stated that “the bill will cost the party support among millennials” and she said in an interview, “I have urged leadership to reconsider bringing it up next week . . . .   We got into trouble last year, and I think we need to be careful again; we need to be smart about how we’re moving forward. . . .  The first vote we take, or the second vote, or the fifth vote, shouldn’t be on an issue where we know that millennials—social issues just aren’t as important [to them].”  The liberal press is all over this -- saying the bill is so extreme that even pro-life Republicans can't support it.
As a result, some pro-life bloggers have called her a “pro-choice mole,” or “a lying waste of oxygen,” and “sniveling liar,” but has she really broken any campaign promises, and how did she even get elected as a pro-life legislator?  Well, she was pro-life with exceptions when she ran, so this really shouldn’t be a big shocker, and it shouldn’t come as a surprise to the groups who endorsed Ellmers that she’s now advocating according to her prior values. 
On Susan B. Anthony List’s website, their endorsement of rape-exception Ellmers for Congress includes the following statement:  “A new women’s movement which affirms its original pro-life roots is making its way to the House of Representatives, and Ellmers is one of its brightest new stars.”  But original pro-life roots would not have included a rape exception.  I’m very pro-woman, but I’d much rather see a 100% pro-life male endorsed than a rape-exception female!  Other big names in pro-life circles helped get Ellmers elected as well:  Wikipedia gives credit to Erick Erickson’s RedState blog, as well as Sarah Palin’s endorsement for helping to get the “previously obscure” Ellmers elected to Congress in 2010.
In the article in which Erick Erickson calls Ellmers a liar, he says, “Just as the GOP has decided to stand firm on a piece of legislation supported by +60% of the nation, she’s scared people won’t like her.”  Stand firm?  The bill was introduced with a rape exception!  How is that standing firm?  And it was done because Congressional Republican leadership were scared people wouldn’t like them!  But Erickson is the same guy who endorsed rape-exception candidate Karen Handel in a bid for U.S. Senate in the 2014 primary when there were viable 100% pro-life candidates.  If Handel had won, she’d surely be standing with Ellmers, and I guess Erickson would now be calling her a liar too, just for standing by her declared values. 
Erickson is also the guy who accused Georgia Right to Life of “moral vacancy” for refusing to compromise on the rape exception in the last go-round with the 20-week ban, and in fact, Erickson went on to get GRTL kicked out of National Right to Life for refusing to compromise, replacing them with his own newly-formed Georgia Life Alliance.
Right now, the other five Republican women are not being named, but once those names are released, it’ll be very interesting to see which pro-life groups and leaders endorsed them, and what their prior positions were on the rape exception before gaining the honor of those endorsements.  If we want to have better legislators – ones who really are champions for defending human life, then pro-life leaders need to stop lavishing undeserving candidates with pro-life endorsements.  That means no rape exceptions!
One has to wonder -- how can pro-life leaders who endorsed them, and who’ve also compromised on the rape exception themselves, now be so upset?  After all, this bill was introduced with a rape exception already in it, set on a “fast track” with no hearing, no debate, and allegedly no amendments to be allowed, yet there was scarcely any public objection to this rape exception from pro-life leaders and organizations.  Instead of objecting to the exceptions, big pro-life organizations like National Right to Life Conference, Susan B. Anthony List and Priests for Life instantly began promoting the bill as is.  There was no campaign from the pro-life movement at-large to contact Congressmen to get the rape exception out, only no-compromise organizations like Save The 1, Personhood Alliance and its affiliates, and American Life League.  Children conceived in rape were summarily yanked off the 20-week rescue bus and thrown under it, while pro-life leaders tried to hide the bodies – not even informing their supporters that there’s a rape exception in the bill.  Are we that negligible?  And the grass-roots can’t be trusted with the truth?  How could they give in so quickly and how can they now be so upset that a group of rape-exception Republican women want the impotent reporting requirement removed?
 It reminds me of the old story where a guy asks a woman, “Will you get in bed with me for $1 million?” And she says “Yes!”  Then he asks, “Will you get in bed with me for $50?”  Now she’s indignant:  “No way!  What, do you think I’m some kind of whore?!”  The man replies, “We’ve already established that.  Now I’m just negotiating terms.”  When pro-life leaders get in bed with rape-exception candidates by endorsing them and colluding with them, and when they instantly accept, enthusiastically endorse and aggressively promote a fast-tracked rape exception bill, they’ve already compromised their values.  So why should they be upset when these legislators begin negotiating terms?
BIO:  Rebecca Kiessling is an international pro-life speaker, writer and lawyer, having been conceived in rape and nearly aborted at two back-alley abortions, but legally protected by no-exceptions Michigan law.  She’s the founder and president of Save The 1 and co-founder of Hope After Rape Conception
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Wednesday, January 14, 2015

There's a Person in There by Darlene Pawlik

In my experience as a nurse, there have been so many times that others in the medical field ignore the dignity of the person to whom care is delivered. For a supervisor, walking in on a bed bath or other personal procedure is no deterrent to getting their job done. “It’s just a body, I’ve seen plenty of them.” they reason. In truth, it is not just a body. There is a person in that body; a person deserving of recognition and respect.
In the ProLife arena, the same holds true. Too many see only a body count. They see mere bodies being brutally murdered. They are people, endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these the Right to Life. If we are to be truly ProLife, we need to recognize and respect the fact that these are people we are trying to protect. There’s a person in that body.

To suggest that some of those people are worthy of protection and some are not, is completely illogical, unless you are forgetting that they are people and not just bodies. It is astonishing to me that so many in the House of Representatives are so disconnected to their own innate knowledge, so as to determine that only some babies are eligible for the right to life. They undermine their own credibility, becoming elitist for the sake of expediency.
If babies have been determined to feel pain at a particular stage of development and the goal is to protect them from being horrifically brutalized to their dismemberment and death, then how could it be that not all of the babies at that stage of development deserve protection? How could the mode of their conception be relevant? Why not their ethnicity or their economic status? The arbitrary conditions in the new Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act are illogical, immoral and should be rejected.
There is either a baby worth protecting, or there is not.
Why is it that legislators believe they can maintain credibility as a Pro-Life person when they are clearly elitists, deciding who deserves to be protected and who does not?  How do they rationalize the fact that a similarly developed baby should be torn limb from limb?  Is it that it is just a vote to them?
And what of the fact that a desperate woman, seeking abortion at 5 months is probably aware that she will kill her child. If she is so desperate, will she not lie and say she was raped?  Lila Rose and Live Action have produced numerous undercover videos exposing the lies of the abortion vendors.  Will they not encourage more lies to keep their business of killing babies profitable?  Can you really believe that?
The PCUCPA is terrible as it is written. Shameful.
I oppose the Government-sanctioned, government funded killing of our neighbors and I hope others who do will see the folly of this kind of legislation.
Respectfully submitted,
Darlene Pawlik,  Savethe1 Speaker and blogger, www.theDarlingPrincess.com, and Chair of NH Right to Life Educational Trust and NHRTL PAC a woman conceived by rape, abused, trafficked and restored by God to a life of purpose and grace. She has been married for almost 25 years, has five grown children and two grandchildren.
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Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Speaking of Pro-Life Exceptions, My Son is Exceptionally Amazing!! by Robyn McLean

From the heart of a mother, who grieves every time she hears of another rape exception in a piece of legislation: 
I was extremely disappointed once again to hear that my son and others like him were targeted for termination in the newly-introduced Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.  Let me tell you why.
We live in a society which offers us so many choices, anywhere from food, to cable, to what we’d like to become.   We also live in a time where we battle on the choice of human life vs. human death, and these decisions are often driven by excuses.  I certainly knew some of the selfish “reasons” which would have “excused” a decision on my part to abort:  I had a reputation I wanted to preserve as a pastor’s daughter and as a Christian. I had been Class President, Class Treasurer, Spiritual Development Chairman, and on the traveling worship team, and I was afraid of losing the chance to be involved like that again as the person I was known for being.  I had no support in my relationship “yet,” he was abusing me and I was trying to “fix” my relationship first.  I didn’t have the finances, I wasn’t ready for a baby, I didn’t want people judging me, I didn’t want to be less desirable, I was afraid of the possibly becoming a single mom, I wanted to hide everything that was wrong and get on track without people knowing, I didn’t want to be viewed differently and to lose the ones who loved me, and . . . , I was pregnant by RAPE – a violent rape.
There's that word, right there:  RAPE.  The one excuse we hear the most.
Excuses, shame, and hurt should not alter our ethical, moral, and discernable consciousness of the life of another human being -- especially an innocent baby.
Having an abortion as a way of “dealing” with a rape is not healthy.  It destroys a woman’s conscience, increases a form of denial, and heightens guilt – whether suppressed or acknowledged.  An abortion acts as a cover-up to the true problem.
When I look at my son, and I see his very essence, how he interacts with people, how he makes them smile/laugh/feel, how he loves, and the joy I experience in his presence --  all those excuses and reasons are wiped away like a rainbow wipes away a storm.
Two years ago, when the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (20-week abortion ban) was introduced in Congress, it included all babies – there was no discrimination, no one targeted as less worthy of protection at the time it was introduced, and it was voted out of committee unanimously by every Republican, though a rape exception was later added on the House Floor by Eric Cantor, who since lost his Primary.  This year, the same bill was introduced to protect all babies -- except those conceived in rape.  This makes no sense to me, as my son is capable of feeling pain -- and love -- just as much as any other child.  Is there any scientific reasoning behind excluding a child like him from a Pain-Capable bill?  Are there studies which these Congressmen can point to which suggest that my son and other children conceived in rape are incapable of feeling any pain?  Or, does it just not matter to them that children like my son are actually capable of feeling pain?  What ever happened to Equal Protection?
We live in a society fighting hard to take down discriminatory statuses and labels, but when it comes to “convenience” – whether making an abortion decision or making a legislative decision – many will slap on a label which lessens an entire group of persons’ value in order to justify their own decision-making process – a life or death decision.  In the pro-life movement, some fight for babies’ lives conceived in various circumstances, anywhere from gender to race to health, but exclude innocent babies conceived in rape.  As a mother of one of these children, this breaks my heart!  They are basing my baby’s worth on a circumstance which had nothing to do with anything he did, but on who his biological father was and what he did.

The Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act says to me that only babies conceived in a time of no hurt, no problems, are to be protected and can therefore live, but other innocent babies can be put to death for someone else’s crime. Even people who lose limbs in a collision can’t legally go and take away the limbs of the responsible party, but a pregnant mother can end the life of an innocent child who did her no harm. In the United States, there’s no death penalty for rapists – only for the innocent child. Any baby, and any child, is precious and worth something no matter what the parents’ thoughts are of them and no matter of the circumstance of their conception.

Does my precious son’s life become less human and of less value than all of those other babies who the Congressmen are defending if my mood, thought, pain, or choice of how I dealt with my awful circumstance changed?  No one can put a price or value on my son, not even me -- because he is INVALUABLE.  He is who God made him to be, and he is not comprised as a human by what other people have done.  Even God doesn’t base our value on our actions. So why should we base any human’s value on other people’s actions?

I think many of us can recall how we felt during times when we were devalued or seen as less of a person for whatever background or reason.  So, I hope you know that you are of value no matter the reason of your conception, the labels put upon you, the family you were raised in, being told you were “bad seed”, having a “disability”, having been abused, etc..  You, my son, and I have value and a reason to be protected just as much as those who society deems exclusively worthy.
My son is capable of feeling deeply.  In fact, many would say he specializes in his feelings and insights of others.  He loves SO much and so intently, that he makes those whom society would ignore, feel pretty special and important.  When he was in my womb, he was very sensitive to my touch.  I would just barely touch my pregnant belly, and he would respond with quite a bit of movement.  Thank goodness all he knew was love and not pain when he was in my womb.  But he deserved protection, without compromise.
I take joy in any progress we make in defending life, but it doesn’t mean I will sit back and not say when something’s wrong.  To stay silent is like not speaking up when a building is perfectly formed, all but the leaking roof.  Eventually, the one imperfection is going to affect the rest of the building.  Why give up fighting for all babies’ lives?  Not only that, but it seems odd to me that pro-life Congressmen would put a price (or lack thereof) on my son’s life and who he is.  
Even people in the pro-choice movement have said that they couldn’t imagine me without my son and how much of a blessing he is in my life, especially having seen how his love pours out and into others. I don’t exaggerate when I say my son has insight into people, feelings, and situations more than many human adults do, and I am not the only one to see and say that.  I don’t think this world could afford to just dispose (physically or thought-wise) of a wonderful, little human like him, and disregard the value of all he’s contributed to life already before the age of four, just because of how he was conceived.   You see, when you target unborn children like him – when you refuse to protect them – our world loses children like my son.
BIO:  Robyn McLean is an inspirational speaker and writer on a wide spectrum, builds websites, and enjoys sharing coffee-time with people.  She is a wife and mother and resides in Colorado Springs, Colorado.  Learn more about her, and her personal story of having become pregnant by rape at www.RobynMcLean.net, and stay connected on Facebook:  www.facebook.com/CoffeeWithRobynMcLean.  Robyn is a blogger and national pro-life speaker for SaveThe 1.
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