Showing posts with label Michelle Bachelet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Michelle Bachelet. Show all posts
Thursday, January 19, 2017

Chileans Who Are the "3 Causes" Being Targeted Say NO to Legalizing Abortion in Chile, by Rebecca Kiessling

I was very disappointed to hear the horrible news on Monday that in a 3-2 vote, a Senate panel in Chile had agreed to move legislation forward to legalize abortion "in three causes" -- if a woman says her preborn child was conceived in rape, if a doctor says a preborn child has a "fatal fetal impairment" or if a doctor says the mother will die without an abortion. All three of these are based on allegations which may or may not be true, but all three also discriminate against the most vulnerable members of society -- the ones who deserve the most protection.  Next week, the full Senate will vote on whether innocent children deserve to die based on these allegations, and if approved, it will go to pro-abortion President Michelle Bachelet for signature, and Chile will see an explosion of innocent blood being shed on its land.
I've previously written regarding this pending legislation in Chile, and now I'd like to add more to this discussion.  I’m the President of Save The 1 - a global pro-life organization of over 450  who were conceived in rape (like me) and mothers who became pregnant by rape who are either raising their children, birthmothers, or post-abortive and regret aborting.  Additionally, we have hundreds who were told to abort due to a challenging pre-natal diagnosis.  We value life and urge the Chilean Senate to continue to protect all human life, without discrimination.
Our Spanish division is Salvar El 1 -- the 1% who are targeted by such legislation, who allegedly only represent 1% of all abortions in the U.S. and globally.  We defend the so-called "hard cases" in the abortion debate.  We now have over 24,000 followers on our Salvar El 1 Facebook page.  Since the news broke that President Bachelet was seeking to legalize abortion in Chile, we have had several citizens of Chile come forward to share their difficult stories with us.  They were encouraged by my story, and the hundreds of other stories of beautiful people from our organization.  Many voices are being heard in Chile, but most importantly, the voices of the innocent must be heard, and these bold Chileans are speaking on behalf of those who are being targeted who are yet at risk!

 Like me, Karina Silva from Santiago, Chile, was conceived in rape, but protected by law.  Her mom was 15 when she was raped, and Karina was born in 1989 -- the same year Chile abolished abortion.  But people like Michelle Bachelet think Karina did not deserve the protection she received under Chilean law.  President Bachelet and others are not proposing to legalize the death penalty for rapists, but this is precisely what they are proposing for innocent Chilean children like Karina!

 Karina says, "I love living! And I appreciate every second that I have. Perhaps to society my life was written for a failure, but it was not!  The solution is not the approval of abortion in Chile -- the solution is to form support networks in our country for these cases."

On the other hand, Monica -- also from Chile -- became pregnant as a result of rape and was determined to kill her baby, until she reached out to her oldest daughter who said, "Mom, how are you going to kill that baby you carry in your womb?!  That baby is as much a victim as you are!  She did not ask to come into the world.  You always dreamed of having three children and, anyway, this will be your third child.  Did you forget everything you suffered in miscarrying your child and now you want to kill this baby who is a victim just like you?”

 In her story written for our blog, Monica wrote:  "Those words touched me to the depths of my being.  She was right -- that baby was a victim of my rapist.  Now I see my daughter who is 4 years and 8 months old, and I ask forgiveness for ever thinking  of aborting her!  But such is the pressure, when you ask those who are supposed to help.  You doubt your own ability to love.  But if it were not for my older daughter who is now 24 years old, my 4 year old would not exist today.  You can survive with a child of the most aberrant act that is the worst violation – a rape.  Always find angels in your life who give you support – those who do not offer you “solutions” which are even more problematic.  My child is a blessing – MY blessing!  I will ask forgiveness to the last day of my life merely because I even thought for a moment about aborting my daughter."

 Then there is Diana Valeria from Chile, who became pregnant by rape in 2008 at 15 years
old, who says her baby helped her to overcome fear.  She wrote: "I was afraid because I did not want to be a mother. I cried and suffered a lot, but I knew that there was someone else who was living within me and it was not my right to do anything but protect my baby." Ultimately, she miscarried after three months. Diana regrettably remembers people saying to her, "Now you will not have to see the memory of the rapist." But inside, she felt this child was her own, not the rapist's.

 Even knowing that her child had been conceived in violence, Diana felt strongly that the origin of her baby's conception does not define the love she feels for her child. Still today, over the years, she says she has not forgotten an angel who spread her wings.
Gustavo Armijo Griñen from Chile also wrote out his family's story for us.  At 20 weeks gestation, they had the first ultrasound where they learned they were having a son, but they were also told that their son had "holoprosencephaly."  At a second opinion in Santiago, Chile where they got a 3D ultrasound, the diagnosis was "Acrania" (their son was missing part of his encephalic mass,) and it was recommended that they abort their child if Chile legalizes abortion for this case, or leave Chile to abort.

 He wrote:  "The following months were very hard, but also the best.  As the weeks passed, we sang to him, we talked to him, we went to the beach, the countryside, birthday parties, and to many family gatherings.  We took thousands of photos, and gave many kisses on the belly and never got tired of saying that we LOVED him.  He was the most beautiful thing God could send us.

Baby Alonso was born two weeks early on December 23, 2015 -- .  "My little one was with us one hour and two minutes. Then he went to heaven because God needed a fighter angel. It's been 4 months now since our son's death.  We are happy because we gave the best in our hands for him to be happy while growing in the womb and in the short hour he was with us."

In regards to a diagnosis of “incompatible with life” – it is impossible to be such when you are still living.  Physicians who peddle abortion are truly the ones with fatal heart defects, often failing to treat the children of parents who refused to abort.  A eugenics mentality becomes pervasive when you allow abortion.

 Pro-Life speaker and blogger Brad Smith from Save The 1 had this to say:  "In the USA, we
have allowed this perverse and demented view of life to take hold in our country through legalized abortion.  We have created a culture of death that causes many in our society to think of life as having little value and they are willing to judge the worth of another person’s life based upon their valueless view.  So now in the United States, doctors kill over 90% of children like my daughter Faith who have a disability.  Before they can even breathe their first breath, doctors murder our disabled children in the womb. The world has become a very scary place for disabled children.  Good people of Chile, do not let your president turn your country into a killing field for disabled children.  Don’t allow yourselves to be deceived that this is the best choice for everyone involved.  This is a LIE.  Your country will not be made better through abortion; rather, it will become degraded and dehumanized.  Your people will not have better lives because disabled children do not exist; they will simply have been deprived of the opportunity to develop compassion and to know the unconditional love of a disabled child who has only love to offer."

Please understand that legalizing abortion for rape or other exceptions would send 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, African babies, or Jewish 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 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 grieve how their children are systematically targeted and devalued, and they are not believed they were raped because they didn’t abort and because they actually love their children.

We appreciate concern for rape victims, but they are 4 times more likely to die within the next year after an abortion, as opposed to giving birth.  In Dr. David Reardon’s book, Victims and Victors: Speaking Out About Their Pregnancies, Abortions and Children Resulting From Sexual Assault, he cites the research done on the subject.  After an abortion, rape victims have a higher murder rate, suicide, drug overdose, etc..  Rapists, child molesters and sex traffickers love abortion, which destroys the evidence and enables them to continue perpetrating.  Oftentimes, a girl’s own mother has been either trafficking her or leaving her unprotected.  It is always the baby who exposes the rape, who delivers her out of the abusive situation, protecting her and bringing her healing.  So if you care about rape victims, you must protect her from the rapist and from the abortion, and not the baby!

Chile, you are a good nation -- a nation so much better than others -- because you’ve established a culture where people are loved and accepted.  The Chileans mentioned above are able to share their life-affirming stories because they were all protected by your 1989 law.  Please do not re-introduce a culture of death and discrimination.  We urge you to contact your Senators and tell them to vote NO to legalize abortion for the three causes -- to vote NO to legalize the slaughter of innocent children.  Let no Chilean blood be spilled on your soil!

 Read in Spanish here:  http://salvarel1.blogspot.com/2017/01/chilenos-que-representan-las-3-causales.html

BIO:  Rebecca Kiessling is an international pro-life speaker, writer and attorney, as well as a
wife and mother of 5 – two adopted and three biological children, as well as another adopted child born with special needs who died in her arms at 33 days old.  She’s the founder and President of Save The 1, co-founder of Hope After Rape Conception, co-founder of Embryo Defense, and on the Executive Committee of Personhood Alliance.

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Friday, March 18, 2016

Chilean President Bachelet: Put Down Your Weapons and Stop Targeting My People Group, by Rebecca Kiessling

Yesterday, crosshairs were placed over the lives of innocent children like me who were conceived in rape or given a fatal fetal impairment diagnosis -- Chile’s Cámara de Diputados (House) approved a bill to legalize abortion in these cases.  The Senate will be voting on this deadly bill, and if approved, it will go to the President for signature. In 1989, abortion was abolished in Chile, but now, with an aggressively pro-abortion President, Michelle Bachelet, Chile is now facing the unthinkable – a culture of death which preys upon innocent children in the womb.

As someone who was conceived in rape, I take this assault on my people group quite personally.  Some may say, “It’s nothing against you personally,” or, “It’s not about YOU Rebecca.”  Well, easy for you to say because this does affect me personally, along with the hundreds from my global organization, Save The 1 – Salvar El 1 in Spanish, who were also conceived in rape and the hundreds of mothers who became pregnant by rape – most of whom are raising their beloved children, or the birthmothers who chose adoption after being raped, as well as the post-abortive women who deeply regret their abortion after rape.

I was born just 4 years before abortion was declared legal by the United States Supreme Court.  In my home state of Michigan, abortion was outlawed, even in cases of rape.  My birthmother actually went to two illegal abortions and I was nearly aborted, but she backed out because of the fact that it was illegal, and because she was afraid for her own safety.  When we met when I was 19 years old, she shared with me how she had been abducted at knifepoint by a serial rapist, and even though she was very happy to meet me, she told me that she would have aborted me if it had been legal.  I literally owe my birth to the law being there to protect me!

I feel like my life was spared from a burning building, and as I have the opportunity to go back and save others, I’m going to do it!  The most selfish thing to do would be to sit back and say, “Oh well, at least my life was spared.”  And others didn’t?  I can’t do that, can you?  I’m alive because of the others who were willing to protect me because they recognized that every life matters and that mine was a life worth saving.

I did not deserve the death penalty for the crimes of my biological father.  It is absolutely
 barbaric to punish an innocent child for someone else’s crime.  What kind of system of justice does that?  And besides, there is so little justice for rape victims.  Every time a child conceived in rape is aborted, you cover up the crime, destroy the evidence and enable rapists, child molesters and sex traffickers to continue exploiting women. 


President Bachelet – I say to you:  Punish rapists, not babies!  For all of your rhetoric of allegedly caring for rape victims, where do you stand on punishing the rapist?  Does he deserve the death penalty?  You speak of how you care about women, well, I’m a woman!  Now tell me, what good are any of my rights as a woman if I don’t have my right to life?!  You cannot answer that question because all other rights are worthless if you don’t have your right to life.

I co-founded Hope After Rape Conception, using my expertise as a family law attorney to create model legislation and to testify before legislative bodies to pass laws which protect rape survivor mothers from the rapist having parental rights.  We’ve been getting our model legislation – The Rape Survivor Child Custody Act -- passed all over the United States, and even in Congress, using the “clear and convincing evidence” to terminate the parental rights of rapists.  I suggest to anyone who actually cares about pregnant rape victims – focus your efforts on something positive for rape victims and their children instead of seeking to punish the innocent child, leaving the rape victim yet vulnerable to the rapist.

Women who are post-abortive after rape overwhelmingly express that it was far more difficult to overcome the abortion than it was the rape.  The abortion is just more violence in her womb after already having been traumatized.  After the abortion, she’s no longer dealing just with what was done to her, but now she has to suffer with what she knows she did to her own child. 

Studies here in the United States have shown that a rape victim is four times more likely to die within the next year after the rape.  They have a higher murder rate because the abortion often helps perpetuate an abusive relationship.  They also have a higher suicide rate, drug overdose, depression, domestic violence and on and on.  Dr. David Reardon from the Elliott Institute wrote a book called Victims and Victors which cites much of this research.  So if you really care about a pregnant rape victim, you should want to protect her from the rapist, and from the abortion – and NOT the baby!  The baby is not the scary enemy, and I resent being characterized as such.  A baby is not the worst thing that could ever happen to a rape victim – an abortion is.

Just know that anytime you target a people group for destruction as President Bachelet is doing in Chile, you are sending a message to every child born – and to every mother raising that child – that the child is worth less than everyone else in your society.  If you heard that some other nation passed an abortion ban, “except in cases of Hispanic babies,” what message would that send to every person in Latin America about the value of your lives?  Would not such a measure be met with absolute outrage?  President Michelle Bachelet has
placed gun sites – crosshairs -- over the lives of every innocent child conceived in rape or given a diagnosis of “fatal fetal abnormality” – many of which in fact end up not being fatal.  President Bachelet, take them off – put down your weapons and stop targeting my people group!  Don’t create an open hunting season on people like me.  My life matters every bit as much as yours.

Today, my birthmother and I are both thankful we were both spared the horror of abortion.  She says that I’m a blessing to her.  I honor her and I bring her healing.  On my birthday 2-1/2 years ago, my birthmom called to wish me happy birthday and to tell me my grandmother died.  I was born on my grandma’s anniversary, and she died on my birthday.  My birthmom and I had a long heart-to-heart conversation.  At the end of our phone call, we were about to hang up and she stopped me and through her tears told me – “Rebecca, Rebecca!  I just want to say, I’m so glad I had you.”  That was the best birthday gift ever!!!  Don’t destroy the hope and beauty that a child brings and that the future holds.

 UPDATE:  On Tuesday, Sept. 6th, the Senate Health Commission voted this abortion bill out of committee.  Right now, Chile needs the full support of the entire international pro-life community!

 http://www.salvarel1.blogspot.com/2016/03/presidente-bachelet-baje-sus-armas-y.html

BIO:  Rebecca Kiessling is an international pro-life speaker, writer and attorney, as well as a wife and mother of 5 – two adopted and three biological children, as well as another adopted child born with special needs who died in her arms at 33 days old.  She’s the founder and President of Save The 1, co-founder of Hope After Rape Conception, co-founder of Embryo Defense, and on the Executive Committee of Personhood Alliance.
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