by Gianna Jessen, an abortion survivor’s testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on September 23, 2016, on the Hyde Amendment and Born Alive Infants Protection Act
Gianna Jessen Asks Congress: “If Abortion Is About Women’s Rights, Then What Were Mine?”
I wish to appeal not only to those present within this chamber today, but to my nation.
We are here to discuss infanticide. I am greatly troubled that this hearing is even necessary, and that such a law to prevent infanticide must be constructed in the United States of America at all.
Many Americans have no idea that babies can even live through abortions and are often left to die. But this does happen. I know this because I was born alive in an abortion clinic after being burned in my mother’s womb for 18 hours.
My medical records clearly state the following: Born during saline abortion on April 6, 1977, 6 a.m., 2 1/2 pounds.
Apart from Jesus Himself, the only reason I am alive is the fact that the abortionist had not yet arrived at work that morning. Had he been there, he would have ended my life by strangulation, suffocation or simply leaving me there to die.
Instead, I lived and have the gift of cerebral palsy as a direct result of lack of oxygen to my brain while surviving an abortion.
By the grace of God, in my case, a nurse called an ambulance and had me transferred to a hospital. That nurse saved my life and I am profoundly grateful to her for this.
Those who wish to justify such unspeakable evil, such as leaving a baby without proper medical care to die, have become masters of the manipulation of language, intimidation and defaming their opponents to achieve their wicked aims.
As a nation, we are continuously exchanging the truth for a lie. We have neglected our soul.
What will it take for us to awaken from our numbness and indifference regarding this? Will we ever wake?
I am confounded as well by the passivity so often demonstrated by otherwise good and just men; by the fact that we must plead with those in power to give the most vulnerable infants among us, even one moment of their attention.
This is a bipartisan issue, and I think it’s important for the American people to weigh at this hour, whether or not they wish to elect someone to the highest office in the land that favors infanticide. Because that is what we are speaking of here, a child, exactly as I was, that had the audacity to live through her mother’s abortion and needed immediate and proper care.
So I would like to ask Mr. Trump to tell me, and you, where he specifically stands on this issue, and I ask the same of Mrs. Clinton. I would also like to ask Senator Mitch McConnell to force a vote on the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act before the end of this September. [President Trump has proven his pro-life position by reinstating the Hyde Amendment.]
I have faced the consequences of our choices as a nation (as evidenced by my cerebral palsy).
So if you choose to do nothing, I believe I at least deserve to know why you find this abhorrent practice tolerable, and I would respectfully ask that you tell me directly.
It seems in some ways, we have lost our way in this beautiful nation. But it needn’t be so. We have only to remember that we are lent each breath, that we are all engraved upon the hands of God, and therefore, cannot for a single moment, be forgotten by Him.
We need only to remember Jesus, who took me from my mother’s womb, to be his own.
Editor’s Note: The Eagle Forum Report is grateful that Gianna Jessen gave us permission to reprint her incredible testimony with one request: she is scheduled exclusively through her website for speaking engagements. Please go to www.giannajessen.com for more information.
President George W. Bush signed the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act in 2002, but that law lacks enforcement protections, which is the purpose of the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. This second bill passed the House with all opposing votes coming from Democrats, but the Senate has yet to pass it.
