CSNbbs

Since a few recent threads have danced around the subject, thought I'd post this for information and possible discussion. An acquaintance recently gave me a video from this woman speaking. I had previously not considered that surviving an abortion was even possible, as abortion is meant to terminate pregnancy. Makes one think.

http://www.melissaohden.com/bio

Testimony of another abortion survivor Gianna Jessen before the Constitution Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee on April 22, 1996.

"My name is Gianna Jessen. I am 19 years of age. I am originally from California, but now reside in Franklin, Tennessee. I am adopted. I have cerebral palsy. My biological mother was 17 years old and seven and one-half months pregnant when she made the decision to have a saline abortion. I am the person she aborted. I lived instead of died.

Fortunately for me the abortionist was not in the clinic when I arrived alive, instead of dead, at 6:00 a.m. on the morning of April 6, 1977. I was early, my death was not expected to be seen until about 9 a.m., when he would probably be arriving for his office hours. I am sure I would not be here today if the abortionist would have been in the clinic as his job is to take life, not sustain it. Some have said I am a "botched abortion", a result of a job not well done...

read the rest here: http://www.abortionfacts.com/stories/gianna-jessen

There are apparently more of these people who survived the abortions meant to end their lives against their mother's wishes. What does one say to these people if you were their mother or father? Do our positions on this issue hold water and remain valid when confronted with the reality of someone who actually survived this procedure?
http://www.theabortionsurvivors.com/surv...estimonies

and for Hollywood's take loosely based on the subject of Gianna's life story:
(more palatable for younger folks to comprehend the issue)

movie trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L52Lciaui4o


OCTOBER BABY movie, (2012)
also stars Jasmine Guy from "A Different World"
and John Schneider aka Bo Duke from "the Dukes of Hazzard"
second shorter movie trailer: [url] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7oTLVevO5g [/url]

Synopsis:
As the curtain rises, Hannah hesitantly steps onto the stage for her theatrical debut in college. Yet before she can utter her first lines, Hannah - unscripted - collapses in front of the stunned audience. After countless medical tests, all signs point to one underlying factor: Hannah’s difficult birth. This revelation is nothing compared to what she then learns from her parents: she was actually adopted... after a failed abortion attempt. Bewildered, angered, and confused, Hannah turns for support to Jason, her oldest friend. Encouraged by his adventurous spirit, Hannah joins his group of friends on a Spring Break road trip, embarking on a journey to discover her hidden past... and find hope for her unknown future. In the midst of her incredible journey, Hannah finds that life can be so much more than what you have planned...

The mission of the Abortion Survivor Network is two-fold:

-To put a face to the statistics of abortion survivors, informing and educating the public about the prevalence of survivors and providing a perspective to abortion that is seldom heard: that of the child.

-To give a voice to survivors in a society that often is unaware of their existence, or, if there is awareness of survivors, they are silenced due to the societal attitudes and beliefs about abortion, and to provide support to fellow survivors who may feel alone in their survival.

http://www.theabortionsurvivors.com/surv...estimonies

C'mon, it's just tissue:

OCTOBER BABY (2012) movie teaser trailer (longer 2:45)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L52Lciaui4o



Unplanned:

Life finds a way.

Gianna Jessen, woman abortion survivor video:

GJ: "If abortion were merely about women's rights, then what were mine?"
Interviewer: "There's no feminist woman fighting for your rights?"

GJ: "My birth certificate was signed by an abortionist. So, that's interesting."
Interviewer: "By the very abortionist who was paid to..."
GJ: "To kill me."

GJ: "I'm spunky...I love being alive, so I want to get all I can while I'm here."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=h0pv...=endscreen

I submit again: What do you say to these actual people who survived their mother's choice?

Anyone willing to speak as if talking directly to them (not to me) and explain your position in a way these people can agree with after watching this brief video?

Somehow, I'm reminded of what Holocaust survivors feel and felt. But that was just another choice by a few, wasn't it? It's okay because I'm sure most of those Nazis were personally against the final solution. Sure worked at Nuremburg trials?

http://www.giannajessen.com
Gianna Jessen
Born: (1977-04-06) April 6, 1977 (age 35)
Place of Birth: Los Angeles, California
Residence: Franklin, Tennessee
Nationality: American
current status: Alive

Figured this thread would be ignored in comparison to the other threads I posted about this issue. If you pretend these people don't exist, then it's easier to keep your assertions that they were never real human beings.

The silence tells all you need to know.

"Abortion survivors exist, she stressed. Through her network, she has connected with 384 of them, ranging in age from infants to people in their 70s."

Abortion Survivor Testifies Against Abortion Bill: ‘We Are An Inconvenient Truth’

Quote:Abortion supporters regularly point to women’s stories to justify their position. But now, two pro-life women are sharing their personal stories about abortion in an attempt to expose abortion for what it is: the intentional destruction of innocent human life that negatively impacts women.

On June 16, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution held a hearing on the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA). Two pro-life witnesses testified during the hearing: Melissa Ohden, the founder and director of Abortion Survivors Network, and Catherine Glenn Foster, the president and CEO of Americans United for Life. Both shared their personal stories, with one speaking as an abortion survivor and the other speaking as a post-abortive woman.

They spoke in an effort to challenge the WHPA, which intends to protect “health care providers” by allowing them to perform abortion “without limitations or requirements that single out the provision of abortion services for restrictions.” This applies to restrictions that are “more burdensome than those restrictions imposed on medically comparable procedures” and those which “make abortion services more difficult to access.”

As an abortion survivor, Melissa Ohden encouraged those present to ask themselves “how can access to abortion, the very act that should have ended my life, simultaneously be my fundamental right to exercise?”

Her earliest stages in life, she said, were “interrupted by abortion.”

Her 19-year-old biological mother named Ruth, in 1977, “had a saline infusion abortion forced upon her by her mother,” who was a “prominent nurse in their community.” Together, she and the local abortionist tried to end Melissa’s life.

“This procedure involved injecting a toxic salt solution into the amniotic fluid meant to protect my fragile body, to instead poison and scald me to death,” Melissa said. “I soaked in that toxic salt solution for five days as they tried time and time again to induce Ruth’s labor with me.”

But, she said, she held on to life.

“When I was finally expelled from the womb on that fifth day, my arrival into this world was not so much a birth, but an accident, a ‘live birth’ after a saline infusion abortion,” she added. “My medical records state: ‘a saline infusion for an abortion was done, but was unsuccessful.’”

Even after birth, she struggled to survive.

“My medical records reflect the doctors initially suspected I had a fatal heart defect because of the amount of fetal distress I presented with,” she said. “My grandmother demanded that I be left to die.”

Her grandmother’s request, she commented, wasn’t uncommon for babies like her who were often placed “in the utility closet to be left to die.”

Thankfully, a nurse rushed her to the NICU.

Abortion survivors exist, she stressed. Through her network, she has connected with 384 of them, ranging in age from infants to people in their 70s.

“We are an inconvenient truth to the conversation about abortion,” she said at another point. “There is something so disturbing . . . about the fact that I had the right to abortion, but I didn’t have the right to live. The great question is, when did my rights to bodily autonomy begin?”

But even as she strives to share her story, Melissa emphasized that the “most important stories” are “likely the ones that you’ll never hear” – those of the “little boys and girls who will never live outside of the womb.”

As a woman who had an abortion, Catherine Glenn Foster declared that “Abortion is violence. I’ve felt it.”

“I so wish that the abortion facility that I walked into when I was just 19 years old had been regulated by the basic community protections that this Congress seeks to destroy,” she said of the WHPA.

“I walked through the doors of the abortion facility because I thought I was out of options,” she began. After taking a pill, she remembered being sent “to a room where I laid down on a table and they began to perform an ultrasound.”

“There was a screen about two feet away from my face that clearly showed the image of my child,” she said, but “the screen was turned away.”

At the time “I was scared and young and alone and frightened and I had no idea what to do or how I could possibly go through with either” abortion or keeping her baby, she recalled. “I said, ‘At least let me see the image of my child so that I can – so I can see my baby and have some kind of further information.’”

But when she asked, “the tech said no, that it was against policy.”

“We know why,” Catherine concluded. “It’s because we change our minds when we see our ultrasounds. We change our minds when we see the image of our child on that screen.”

Now, she and Melissa hope their stories have the power to change minds too.

Some people did something…

Honestly, this is the first I've ever heard or seen of this. It's something I'm not sure I ever even considered. But wow. Just wow. How sad it must be to know that your own mother didn't want you and in fact chose to end your life.

If ever there was a case for reparations...

Thank you for posting this.

Kind of eliminates the “not viable outside the womb” defense.

Who do you think "black face" Ralphie Northam was talking about when he said they would set it aside and "make it comfortable" while they discussed how they were going to execute it.