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My birth mother was taken by her father Three times for an illegal abortion.
The first two times, uh...she basically Chickened out, and the third time...
Um..she was going to go through with it And something inside her just screamed NO!
And she was prepped on the table She ended up kicking the abortionist and escaped
Uh..from this back alley abortion clinic, cause this was Before Roe vs. Wade, so this was all illegal.
Uh, after that..the brother was told To take her out to the woods
And basically beat her into having A miscarriage, which he would not do.
And then they tried poisoning her with Quinine. Uh..to try to get her to miscarry.
And that didn't work. So eventually the decision Was made, still pretty early on in the pregnancy
They, uh..this was in Tennessee, and they Sent her to Chicago, to Catholic Charities
To a *** mothers' home, Saint Vincent's, where she spent her pregnancy there
Gave birth to me, and then signed me over, and I was adopted five weeks later.
You know, my birth mother was obviously A young girl in crisis
Was completely incapable of taking care of a child
Uh...Jim's mother, who was ***, and carried him She was-she was older, she was thirty-six
So she concealed the pregnancy As long as she could, and hid it.
Um...and was able to get to Catholic Charities and have him
So we're two kids who may have been Conceived and born out of crisis
But we're certainly not any less loved, any less wanted
We've both had amazing adoptive parents. Who so desperately wanted children.
Who couldn't have children of their own Our parents, actually, had very similar stories
Could not have their own kids
And we were the biggest blessings, and The biggest answer to their prayers
Is to have a family, when nature wouldn't provide one.
And..so for those of us who our society May call the "unwanteds"
I think every adoptive parent out there would Negate that argument and argue against it
And say, "No, these children are loved And wanted, and are every bit as valued."
You know, regardless of conception Regardless of your humble beginnings
You know, you are who you are Based on the character of who you are
Not necessarily the moment of your creation.
Being an adopted person, you Start to imagine perhaps your story
And you think of two special people who were in a crisis
They were faced with a tough decision, But they were in love, and
They just wanted to do the right thing
You hoped you were formed from an act of love
I was even prepared to accept the fact that Maybe this was just a fleeting love
Um, but what I did find out was something a lot different
Um...being adopted I was curious about my history
I petitioned Catholic Charities To get my background information.
And...I eagerly anticipated that letter coming back.
And finding out about my history.
And when that letter arrived
Very plain, simple letter, little did I know I might as well Have been holding a hand grenade in my hand with a-
With a pulled pin.
I opened the letter, found a nice description Of my mother on the first page
As I went to the next page, there were Six words that just jumped out
And that hand grenade exploded
And the words were: "She said She was sexually assaulted"
As a ***-conceived person, I take this very personally
I take the exceptions included in law very personally
Because back in 1958, had someone Been proposing laws with *** exceptions
That would have targeted me directly.
So, we as ***-conceived individuals are here To speak for the people who are targeted today
And, to be consistent with true pro-life philosophy
We're here to speak for the people Who can't speak for themselves,
For those pre-born, those ***-conceived Babies about to be born
Who need protection.
Another part of the stigma comes from the Pro-abortion argument
We are exhibit A on their list of unwanted lives, The *** and *** conceived people.
There's another stigma that comes from the Constant pressure to put that exception into law
There's a little bit of stigma that Comes from the pro-life side
People who claim that they're pro-life, but are Comfortable with the *** exception
Uh, even Sean Hannity recently called ***-conceived people the evil seed
He just couldn't get his head around You know, letting go of-of that exception.
There are people that claim they're pro-life who just can't get past this conceptual blockage that they have
Uh, that...that we're like real human beings Or that we have value
We are here and we have a purpose.
People call us the ***'s baby
But we aren't the ***'s baby. We are children of God.
God wants life.
I'm so thankful, to my mother certainly, Thankful for her courage
But I'm thankful that I'm here to honor God With my life, to the best of my ability
And through Wendy, and the love that we share, To continue life with a great family
Three wonderful sons, and what a blessing they are.
And it shows that out of tragedy, or out of Difficult circumstances, life blossoms.