Attorney and pro-life advocate Rececca Kiessling spoke to campus pro-life group Students for Life last night at the College of William and Mary about abortion in the case of rape.
Kiessling began by talking about her childhood; as an adopted child, she constantly felt left out. When she turned 18, she tried to find her biological parents.
“I wanted to find my identity, my purpose,” she told the group. “I wanted people to see me as a person of value.”
Kiessling said she found a full description of her mother but very little information about her father. Later she discovered she was the daughter of a rape victim.
“When I found out that I had the genes of a serial rapist, I was devastated,” she said. “I didn’t want to be classified into that category, conceived in the case of rape. I felt like garbage.”
Kiessling said it was particularly poignant when her biological mother made a confession to her years later.
“My mom told me that … if abortion was legal at Michigan at the time, she would have gotten an abortion,” she said.
Kiessling challenged the notion that she is pro-rape because she encourages women to continue their pregnancy even in the case of rape.
“There is a huge moral difference between being anti-abortion in the case of rape and being pro-rape,” Kiessling said.
She added that she takes personal offense when she meets pro-choice advocates.
“Whenever I meet someone who is pro-choice, it’s as if they’re saying to me that they think my mother should have been able to abort me,” she said. “If they had it their way, I would be dead.”
Kiessling rebuffs the argument that the fetus, because it’s undeveloped, can’t feel anything during abortion.
“It’s like justifying killing someone when they’re sleeping, because they can’t feel it,” she said.
Kiessling said she thinks it’s ironic that so many feminists are pro-choice.
“I find it strange that the so-called ‘feminists’ are saying that women are weak and can’t handle the pregnancy, and they talk about pregnancy like it’s torture,” she said. “My life matters. Your life matters. Your generation is being aborted, and it matters. Current statistics show that in the case of a crisis pregnancy, only four percent are choosing adoption.”
Kiessling works to provide support for women struggling in their decision as to how to handle their pregnancy.
“As a family law attorney, I help women who are being forced to get an abortion, sometimes by a husband or boyfriend, or by the parents.”
Kiessling listed three common fallacies about abortion.
“First there’s the idea most victims want an abortion. Second, that the woman would be better off with an abortion. And third, that the child isn’t worth it,” she said. “These ideas are all false.”
Kiessling focused on what she called the irony of America’s tendency to protect a huge variety of rights, but not the right to life.
“It’s strange, because we protect right of the dead, and follow their letters of will, but we can’t protect our right of life,” she said. “It doesn’t make sense that we’re protecting all these rights, but not the right of life.”
Kiessling advocates showing women their ultra-sound before they make the decision to have an abortion.
“95 percent of abortion-minded people change their mind after seeing an ultra-sound,” she said. “Every child is a gift. And I hope you can all say to me that you will proceed to defend human life.”
