Thursday, May 12, 2016
The Pro-Life Debate -- Defending Innocent Children, or Congressmen? by Rebecca Kiessling
Are some candidates “more pro-life” than others? Yes!
Is it important to know which candidates and which organizations are
willing to compromise their pro-life values? Yes, because we’re talking about
lethal prejudice.
This is not a political game for me. I literally owe my birth to the law being
there to protect me. My heroes are
pro-life legislators in Michigan who recognized that mine was a life worth
saving, even in cases of rape – 100% pro-life, with no exceptions and no
compromise. They are my heroes! My birthmother did not choose life for
me. She chose abortion. I was nearly aborted at two illegal
abortionists -- my life-changing
near-death experience. She only backed out because of the “back
alley” conditions and because it was illegal.
If your mother chose life for you – how nice for you, but mine didn’t. Some of
us are in need of heroes – those who willing to protect us without exception,
without compromise.
I’m from Michigan where we’ve never had a rape exception in
a single law. It’s not because Michigan
is a red state. We’re a purple state in fact.
It’s because Right to Life of Michigan is a no exceptions, no compromise
organization and they made the determination in the early 70’s that they would
never forsake the child conceived in rape.
So what does that mean exactly?
It means that a candidate does not get their PAC (political action
committee) endorsement if he or she makes a rape exception, and they don’t put
their stamp of approval on rape exception legislation. As a result, we’ve passed some of the best
laws in the nation – and they’re clean
laws, with no exceptions. We even
overrode the Governor’s veto a couple of years ago with a state-wide petition drive,
then a majority vote of the House and Senate.
Again, this is because of the stellar pro-life leadership here in
Michigan.
For many years, Right to Life of Michigan (RLM) was the only
affiliate of National Right to Life Conference (NRLC) who refused to compromise
on the rape exception. In the early 1970’s,
there was a schism within the pro-life movement over whether to forsake the
child conceived in rape. Nellie Gray,
founder of the March for Life (MFL), used to go and on about it. She had their statement of principles read
each year at the March, which outlined the MFL no compromise stance when she
was in leadership. Judie Brown,
President of American Life League (ALL) can tell you all about this schism as
well. Sadly, the majority voice on the
national level has been that of compromise.
The movement and innocent children conceived in rape have suffered as a
result, because they’ve celebrated mediocrity instead of achieving success by
electing the best possible pro-life legislators.
At the state level, on the other hand, Right to Life of
Michigan was able to successfully persuade other state groups across the nation
to go to the no exceptions, no compromise model – including Georgia Right to
Life (GRTL). Dan Becker details Georgia’s
dramatic transformation within his book, Personhood: A Pragmatic Guide to Pro-Life Victory in the
21st Century and the Return to First Principles in Politics. Georgia was the worst in the nation – worse
than California or New York, with no pro-life laws on the books. They only had 3% of the entire legislature who were 100%
pro-life in the whole state. When GRTL
went to this model of no exceptions, no compromise, they lost half their board
over it and both parties told them they were finished in Georgia and rendered
irrelevant. But what did they have to
lose? In about 10 years, when Dan Becker
wrote his book, they went from worst to being ranked 4the in the
nation by Americans United for Life (AUL,) with a Gold Star rating. And Georgia’s laws have NO rape
exceptions! Every state-wide elected
official – Governor, Lt. Governor, Secretary of State, and Attorney General
were all 100% pro-life, and in fact, signed an affidavit with GRTL vowing not to
compromise on that stance. This is ONLY
the result of GRTL’s leadership and the decision not to compromise pro-life
values.
Meanwhile, in Congress, they’re not getting anything
done. Yet somehow, NRLC and others still
think their strategy of compromise is effective. You hear them say things like – “It’s the
burning building analogy. You save the 99
in exchange for the 1, saving as many as you can, while working to save
all.” There are several problems with
this strategy. First of all, they are not
working to save all. The reality is that
they shut the water off, send the fire trucks home, and stand there watching
the building burn with the 1 left inside.
The compromisers never go back to save the 1. The Hyde Amendment’s rape exception has been
in place for more than two decades now, but instead of working to challenge it,
the rape exception has become the standard and the Hyde Amendment is regularly
used to justify it: “It merely
incorporates the terms of Hyde.” They’ve
already determined that the child conceived in rape is an expendable casualty
and not worth the effort to defend.
Whenever I hear “Save the 99 in exchange for the 1,” I can’t
help but think of the Parable of the Lost Sheep, because Jesus was all about
saving the 1! He starts out by saying,
“See that you do not despise
any of these little ones.”
Despise??? What a strange thing
to say! Why would anyone despise a
little one? Well, Sean Hannity called us
an “evil seed” during his April 30, 2013 radio interview of Lila Rose. Bishop Paul Morton , Jr. called us a “demon
seed, not what God created” at a pastors conference of 2,000. We’re called “horrible reminder of the rape,”
“demon spawn,” “monster’s child,” “tainting the gene pool.” Yeah, we’re despised – certainly more than
any other people group today.
Jesus continues in Matthew 18: “For I tell you that their
angels in Heaven always look upon the face of my Father in Heaven.” Then He goes into the whole Parable of the
Lost Sheep, where the Good Shepherd leaves the 99 to save the 1, and Jesus ends
the lesson by saying, “In the same way, your Father in Heaven is not willing
that any of these little ones should perish.”
And neither should we! Who are “the
least of these” of whom Jesus spoke? Are
not children conceived in rape the least of the least in today’s society? It's absolutely deplorable that any pro-life leader would suggest that they are in fact willing that any of these little ones should perish. Because we're despised, it makes it easier for you? Horrible!
So back to the burning building – what’s really happening is
that you have people going in for job interviews (candidates) to become
firefighters (legislators.) These
prospective firefighters sit down and tell the fire chiefs (leaders in the
pro-life movement,) “Just so you know – I discriminate. Yeah, if I go into a burning building and
there are children in the midst of the fire in the back of the building, I’m
not going to save them. They’re going to
be painfully disfigured and thus, will be a horrible
reminder of the fire, and I’m just not going to do that to their parents,
so I will discriminate and I’m going to let them die. And if you try to force me to go in and save
them, I just won’t go in and save any.”
Now tell me, what fire chief in his right mind would hire
such a person as a firefighter?! But
that’s what far too many pro-life leaders have been doing. And then, if somehow one inadvertently got
hired, then refused to go in and save any if not allowed to discriminate, what
fire chief would give his blessing on leaving an innocent child behind?! And what fire chief wouldn’t immediately fire
that firefighter?! But instead, what’s
been happening is that the corrupt fire chiefs not only support these deadly
actions, but they reward them with a bonus in the form of a 100% approval
rating and PAC endorsement! The burning
building predicament is not an emergency situation, but entirely foreseeable
when they lower their standards and endorse these candidates. And it’s preventable because there are good
firefighters who don’t discriminate.
Do you see the problem now?
And if that’s not bad enough, then you have some good fire chiefs like
GRTL who are attacked by the bad fire
chiefs, and they try to run them out of their jurisdiction by appointing
another corrupt fire chief like Georgia Life Alliance who wants to unravel all
of the good work GRTL’s done by undermining the standard of
non-discrimination! Let me be clear –
Georgia Life Alliance would bring Georgia back to the days of utter
failure. They’ve already given Congressman
Doug Collins a 100% approval rating when he allows for the rape exception! How is that possible? It’s just like how Eric Cantor was rewarded
with a 100% approval rating by NRLC when he introduced the rape exception in
the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which is completely misleading to
those who think a 100% approval rating from a pro-life organization means the
candidate is actually 100% pro-life. Go
figure!
Rebecca Kiessling with Dr. Paul Broun at MiCPAC |
But too many are just accustomed to my people group being treated as the
scapegoat, pawn, bargaining chip, cannon fodder, sin eater of the pro-life
movement – being punished not only for the sins of our biological fathers, but
for the sins of mediocre politicians as well.
Consider replacing the rape-conceived with any other people group – for
example, “except in cases of Jewish babies.”
What message would that send to every Jew living in America today? It tells them that their life is not as
valuable -- that they are “tainted” and
not as worthy of life and protection as everyone else. No other people group is as systematically
targeted and discriminated against in today’s society as the child conceived in
rape. Rape survivor mothers, who are
raising their children whom they love, grieve at how their children are
devalued and how they are being exploited, and this lethal prejudice must end!
So now we must ask, who are these compromise organizations
more interested in protecting? The
innocent child conceived in rape, or politicians who vow to discriminate? The 14th Amendment says that no
state shall deprive a person of their right to life without due process of law,
and that no state shall deny a person equal protection of the laws. Rape exceptions violate equal
protection. You cannot legitimately
support the 14th Amendment right to life, while denying its equal
protection requirements.
There is a superior strategy – not only morally superior, but
practically superior as well because being 100% pro-life is really the litmus test for how
passionate a candidate is about protecting life. These are our champions who are able to bring us out
of deadly stagnation. Dan Becker was right –
being principled IS the most the pragmatic approach. Michigan and Georgia are proof of that. So let’s punish rapists, not babies, and
protect babies, not politicians.
BIO: Rebecca
Kiessling is a wife, mother of 5, attorney and international pro-life
speaker. She’s the founder and President of the global pro-life organization Save The 1 -- addressing all of the so-called "hard cases" in the abortion debate, co-founder of Hope After Rape Exception,
and national spokeswoman for and Executive Committee Board Member of Personhood Alliance.
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2 comments:
You rock, Rebecca. Can we start posting this on FB, yet?
It makes me feel sad as I read this Rebecca and to hear that you and others conceived in rape are not valued .... You ARE valued, you are All valued..... I am one of your 100% pro life --No exceptions...I love you and all that you do...Know that what society thinks isn't important--its what God thinks!! Right :) <3
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