32 years ago, in 1977, 4 years after abortion became legal in the United Sates, Gianna Jessen was aborted.  Her 17-year-old biological mother decided in her 7 ½ month of pregnancy that she didn’t want to have a baby.  She went to a Planned Pregnancy Center in Southern California, where she subjected the pre-born baby in her womb to a toxic saline solution, after which the baby should have been delivered dead within a day.

18 hours of chemical burning later, Jessen was born, alive.  

The delicious irony of the situation, according to Jessen, is that the doctor who tried to abort her had to sign her birth certificate instead. 

“This was the Lord being a lawyer on my behalf,” she said. “My birth certificate is signed by an abortionist.  God’s providential will is bigger than his.”    

Jessen, who calls herself “God’s girl,” and “the apple of his eye,” likens her experience to that of “Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.”  She said she “feels like Jesus was there in the abortion clinic with her,” protecting her from being burned just like he protected the aforementioned Bible Heroes.” 

Jessen says she is “gifted” with Cerebral Palsy as a result of the lack of oxygen to her brain during the procedure and believes she was spared to speak out.

“The idea that someone would terminate a pregnancy because of a baby’s predicted disability is appalling,” she said. “That someone is less valuable because they are weak - that thinking is Hitler to me.”

“My prognosis at birth was horrendous. A bunch of doctors were saying “she’s never going to move, she’s never going to do anything,” she said.  Jessen limps, yet, “I’ve run two marathons on my beautiful toes,” she quipped.  And in typical Jessen fashion, she excuses her limp with a joke about trading comfort for fashionable shoes. 

“As a culture we don’t acknowledge the humanity of the abortion issue, we just talk about rights,” Jessen said.  “Abortions are performed in America through the 9th month.  ‘Health of the mother’ can mean anything - that’s what’s so bogus about that excuse.  I’m living proof these babies have a right to live.”

Jessen has lent her voice and presence to pro-life causes - starring in a television advertisement highlighting the Illinois voting record of then-candidate Obama, which 4 times denied life for a baby born alive after a botched abortion.  She also provided a living example before the U.S. Supreme Court when they narrowly upheld the ban on partial-birth abortion. 
“What the government fears most is an educated, free people,” Jessen said.  “I believe more and more people are awakening from their slumber after seeing their freedoms being taken away from them,”

Jessen is attractive, intelligent, exuberant, joyful, and humorous, yet purposeful.   She has written the book, Aborted and Lived to Tell About It and been a featured speaker on Focus on the Family and Fox News’ Hannity & Colmes. 

Jessen credits two decisions as life-changing and sustaining: her relationship with her Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and her resolve to refuse to be a victim.

Jessen said she has met her biological mother once and told her she forgave her.  “Some people choose to be victims. I choose the mentality that victimhood leads to tyranny.  Instead we could just be living and thriving and getting things done,” she said.

For more information and Jessen’s complete story, go to her website: Giannajessen.org.