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Mod Squad: Feel free to place this anywhere you deem appropriate with no offense taken by me!  :)

So many today spend little time thinking about abortion. It's something that happens to "others". We all have an opinion on it - but usually only when pressed to answer do we even contemplate it. But it goes so much deeper than the "politics" of it!

Too often we forget that there will be ramifications down the road. A woman who has an abortion usually does so based on emotions. And like any emotion, time changes the perception of it. But abortion is a permanent decision and the pain that follows from that *choice* is also permanent! But it's a choice that can not be undone!

And let's not forget the fathers. So many have no say in the abortion decision and simply have to accept it-- though many wanted the child, it's not their *choice*.

And the grandparents - they simply don't count, either.

And the baby. No one takes the time to think about the *fact* that a human being's life has been taken. Someone else has decided that the baby didn't deserve their chance at life.

Let's remember to pray for the woman who is trying to *choose* whether or not abortion is right for them. The pressure to have an abortion can be intense!

And remember to pray for those who are dealing with the pain of that *choice* in their past.

May we show them love and point to a Savior who can use that experience to help others!

Amen sister,

Prayer is a powerful tool and many should be taking this in prayer. Pro-choice is not a choice at all. Taking the life of a baby still in the womb or partially in the womb is the taking of a life, plain and simple. The choice starts long before conception, not after conception.

Add my prayers to PR's prayers. To me abortion is murder, plain and simple.

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Please don't get mad with my opinion.

I agree with you to a certain extent. I know that I have prayed for this before, but there are certain situations where keeping the child or giving the child up could lead to worse circumstances.

Part of me believes that God blesses these parents with children, but they don't accept them and he knew in the begining that this would happen. All I can say is that they are in a better place them we are! Honestly the only thing we can do is pray for these families.

God Bless,
Christina

AMEN Christina!

Thanks!!

           I agree that it is murder,except in cases of rae &/or
      if the Mother's life is endangered.
           I am pro-choice(I choose life).    :D Life is a choice,
     NOT death .

                         Yours in Yeshua,
                         curious



                                   

Abortion Survivor ... Rescued, Redeemed and Running the Good Race
Feature by Rebecca Grace
March 10, 2006
(AgapePress) - "This is the White House calling. You need to call us." These are the words Gianna Jessen heard as she listened to her voicemail.

Eager to the return the call she assumed was a joke, she dialed the number. The voice on the other end gave her news she never expected to hear: "You need to get on a plane within two days because you're going to meet the president in Pittsburgh. He's signing the bill that you testified in favor of a couple of years ago."

Reality set in as Jessen arrived in Pittsburgh and was led into a crowded room where she met President George W. Bush. She was too nervous to speak, but Bush calmed her anxiety with a hug.

"The president of the United States is treating me like his next-door neighbor," Jessen remembers thinking.

"This is the way I need to be in leadership," she thought. "The Scripture that kept running through my mind [was] 'He who is chief among you will be the servant of all.'"

But a lesson in leadership was not all Jessen learned that day. Later, she mustered enough courage to speak to the president. "Oh, Mr. President, I have to tell you that I so respect you that I don't know what to say," Jessen said. "You need to know that we are praying for you."

"That's the greatest gift you can give to a president," Bush replied.

"At this moment, [having never known my real father], it was like the president became my father because he looked right into my face with the kindest, strongest voice and said, 'You are so sweet!' And then he looked at me and said, 'I'm not going to let you down,'" Jessen recalled.

"He kissed me on the cheek, hugged me again and went on his way.

"And that changed my life" -- a life God, the Creator, chose to spare nearly 28 years ago in the darkness of an abortion clinic.

A Near-Death Experience
Jessen is an abortion survivor who now spends her life speaking up for the speechless. She was invited to meet the president on August 5, 2002, as a result of her standing before Congress and testifying on behalf of the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act that Bush signed into law that day.

As described by National Right to Life, "The law guarantees that every infant born alive enjoys full legal rights under federal law, regardless of his or her stage of development or whether the live birth occurred during an abortion."

The law came 25 years too late for Jessen but not a minute too soon for the countless number of babies that are yet to be born. However, Jessen knows that it was because of the sheer power of Jesus Christ that she survived a saline abortion in 1977 after her biological mother went to a Planned Parenthood clinic in southern California.

"I was that baby she aborted," Jessen said, or at least attempted to abort by allowing an abortionist to inject a saline salt solution into her womb. The plan is for the baby to gulp the solution which burns the child both inside and out before she is delivered dead within 24 hours. After being burned alive in her mother's womb for 18 hours, Jessen was delivered alive in the abortion clinic.

"The abortionist ... was not on duty the moment I came into this world," Jessen added. "Had he been there, he would have ended my life with strangulation, suffocation or [by] leaving me there to die, which was considered perfectly legal up until ... President Bush signed ... the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act to prevent that from happening any further. Now a child who goes through something like that must receive proper medical care."

God's plan for Jessen was unfolding as evident from the medical care she received after a nurse at the abortion clinic called an ambulance and had this two-pound life transported to a hospital where Jessen refused to die.

"The abortionist had to sign my birth certificate," Jessen said. "A few hours before, he was trying to take my life, and then a few hours later he had to acknowledge it."

A Will to Live
Although Jessen was full of life from the moment of conception, surviving the abortion was only the beginning of what appeared to be a bleak future.

Following an extended hospital stay, Jessen was placed in emergency foster care where she was mistreated before being rescued by a foster mother named Penny.

"I needed love, ... and she took me home [at 17 months]," Jessen said.

By this time, Jessen was 32 pounds of dead weight . She was never expected to lift her head, sit up, crawl, walk or sing. Jessen was also diagnosed with cerebral palsy caused by the lack of oxygen to her brain during the abortion.

The doctor told Penny that she should give up on the thought of Jessen progressing beyond a vegetative state.

"Doesn't this language sound strangely familiar?" Jessen asked. "Didn't we hear the same language over and over last March in regards to a woman named Terri Schiavo?

"So my point being ... we cannot take the lives of weak people just because they make us uncomfortable," she said. "Just maybe those weak people might be forcing us to deal with the issues in our own souls."

Jessen explained how she could relate to Schiavo, who survived for 13 days after being deprived of food and water, because Jessen had the same will to live as a struggling infant.

"When you want to live, you fight," Jessen said. "The person, whether or not she can speak, is speaking volumes by the fact that she will not give in to death .... [So] this has gotten me thinking about why in the world we are so eager to end the lives of weak people.

"Penny wasn't one of those people. She worked with me three times a day with my physical therapy ..., and I wasn't her only foster child. There were times when she had five [children] at once, and she did my physical therapy anyway, and I began to hold my head up."

By three-and-a-half years old, Jessen began to walk with the aid of a walker and leg braces.

"Now don't you think that's early for someone who was never supposed to be anything more than a vegetable?" Jessen asked. "So 'it is not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord of Hosts,' and I believe with all my heart that the miraculous is possible."

A Race to Run
After four surgeries, including a severe spinal surgery, Penny taught Jessen to walk again. Now, she walks with only a slight limp and has taken on the challenge of running marathons while pursuing a career as a singer and songwriter.

She completed her first marathon in April 2005 in her hometown of Nashville, Tennessee. "It took me seven-and-a-half hours, but I didn't quit," Jessen said. "It was the most unbelievable day."

Jessen began her marathon stint about two years ago when she went into a gym and met a trainer. At the time, Jessen could only lift 30 pounds of weight with her legs, so her new trainer didn't expect a strenuous workout regimen to last more than about two weeks.

However, a year later Jessen was crossing the finish line of a national marathon, a feat she tackled for several reasons. One reason was to honor Penny, who became Jessen's grandmother after Penny's daughter, Dianna, officially adopted Jessen.

"[Plus] I do this for people to give them hope so that they can see that the impossible is possible," she explained.

Jessen is working as a volunteer for Stars Organization Supporting Cerebral Palsy (S.O.S.), which is designed to promote awareness of and support for people with cerebral palsy. She is accepting donations and sponsorships at www.justgiving.com/giannajessen for her participation in the Flora London Marathon 2006 in April.

At the same time, God continues to teach Jessen lessons in humility and obedience that are more rewarding than a first-place finish. The training process has become a means of healing from the emotional pain associated with her abortion.

"[For example], when I started running marathons, a dear friend of mine was working on my leg [muscles] with massage," Jessen explained.

The moment the massage began, Jessen burst into sobs. She immediately knew it was because the physical hand of love had not touched her when she was small. "That part of me was completely abandoned, and I felt like it was the Lord just touching me and healing [me]," she said.

Jessen was not traumatized when she first found out, at the age of 12, that she had survived an abortion.

"The things I've been traumatized by are the results of that [abortion]," she admitted, "so there are things that God is really healing now that I didn't even know needed to be healed."

A Life to Lead
Although Jessen no longer suffers physical pain, her life continues to be full of difficult challenges that she believes began at the moment she was conceived. However, her personal relationship with Christ, which began when she was four years old, is what has brought her to where she is today.

"I adore the Lord!" she said. "He is my Father..., but I would be a liar and not so true of a Christian if I said [that] every day is just one big 24-hour piece of bliss.

"You can't handle anything on your own except by the strength and the grace of God that is propelling you forward and helping you overcome in victory by His grace," she added. "There is unbelievable, beautiful treasure in the midst of pain and weakness," which is why she is able to see her cerebral palsy as a gift rather than a disability.

"He healed me by taking away my desire to be healed and showing me the tremendous life that I will lead .... It seems like the more challenges, the more joy I get," Jessen explained.

"I don't want to be a person who quits. I want to make a mark on this world."

© 2006 AgapePress all rights reserved

Testimony of Gianna Jessen
Hearing on H.R. 4292, the "Born-Alive Infants Protection Act of 2000"
House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution
July 20, 2000

My name is Gianna Jessen. I would like to say thank you for the opportunity to speak today. I count it no small thing to speak the truth. I depend solely on the grace of God to do this. I am 23 years old. I was aborted and I did not die. My biological mother was 7 months pregnant when she went to Planned Parenthood in Southern California and they advised her to have a late-term saline abortion.

A saline abortion is a solution of salt saline that is injected into the mothers womb. The baby then gulps the solution, it burns the baby inside and out and then the mother is to deliver a dead baby within 24 hours.

This happened to me! I remained in the solution for approximately 18 hours and was delivered ALIVE on April 6, 1977 at 6:00 am in a California abortion clinic. There were young women in the room who had already been given their injections and were waiting to deliver dead babies. When they saw me they experienced the horror of murder. A nurse called an ambulance, while the abortionist was not yet on duty, and had me transferred to the hospital. I weighed a mere two pounds. I was saved by the sheer power of Jesus Christ.

Ladies and gentleman I should be blind, burned.....I should be dead! And yet, I live! Due to a lack of oxygen supply during the abortion I live with cerebral palsy.

When I was diagnosed with this, all I could do was lie there. "They" said that was all I would ever do! Through prayer and hard work by my foster mother, I was walking at age 31/2 with the help of a walker and leg braces. At that time I was also adopted into my wonderful family. Today I am left only with a slight limp. I no longer have need of a walker or leg braces.

I am so thankful for my Cerebral Palsy. It allows me to really depend on Jesus for everything.

When the freedoms of one group of helpless citizens are infringed upon, such as the unborn, the newborn, the disabled and so called "imperfect," what we do not realize is that our freedoms as a NATION and Individuals are in great peril.

I come today in favor of this Bill, in favor of the Protection of Life. I come to speak on behalf of the infants who have died and for those appointed to death. Learned Hand, a well respected American Jurist (within our own century) said: " The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the minds of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interests alongside its own without bias; the spirit of liberty remembers that not even a sparrow falls to earth unheeded; the spirit of liberty is the spirit of Him who, near 2000 years ago, taught mankind that lesson it has never learned, but has never quite forgotten; that there is a kingdom where the least shall be heard and considered side by side with the greatest."

Where is the soul of America?! Members of this committee: where is YOUR heart? How can you deal with the issues of a nation without examining her soul? A murderous spirit will stop at nothing until it has devoured a nation. Psalm 53:1-3 says: "The fool has said in his heart, 'there is no God'; they are corrupt, and have done abominable iniquity; there is none who does good. God looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek God. Every one of them has turned aside; they have together become corrupt; there is none who does good, no, not one."

Adolph Hitler once said: "The receptive ability of the great masses is only very limited, their understanding is small; on the other hand their forgetfulness is great. This being so, all effective propaganda should be limited to a very few points which in turn, should be used as slogans until the very last man is able to imagine what is meant by such words." Today's slogans are: "a woman's right to choose" and "freedom of choice," et cetera.

There was once a man speaking from hell (recorded in Luke 16) who said "I am tormented in this flame." Hell is real. So is Satan, and the same hatred that crucified Jesus 2000 years ago, still resides in the hearts of sinful people today. Why do you think this whole room trembles when I mention the name Jesus Christ? It is because He is REAL! He is able to give grace for repentance and forgiveness to you and to America. We are under the judgment of God - but we can be saved through Christ. Romans 5:8-10 "But God demonstrates his own love towards us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For when we were ENEMIES we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life."

Death did not prevail over me....and I am so Thankful!!

Praise God, what a powerful testimony!

AMEN!! I will be keeping Jessen, in my prayers.

Her testimony IS powerful! What a life she's had! And the Lord is using her in such a powerful way!  :D

AMEN!! That is a Testimony to the Lord.

ANOTHER AMEN!!

I was just thinking about many Christians who have spent most of their adult lives in trying to stop abortion. There may be some reason for encouragement now. FINALLY, things are beginning to happen that look promising.

This is a powerful example that God has a use for all of us. Babies belong to God and they are gifts from God. Only GOD has the right to decide life or death for every baby.

Love In Christ,
Tom

Titus 3:4-7 NASB  But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

An Abortion Survivor's Story

In September of 1975, a woman discovered that she was pregnant. Things were very difficult for her, as she was raising two sons, six and 15 years old. Their father had walked out on them and refused to help care for the boys financially, or in any other way. The only alternative for this woman, it seemed, was to abort this unexpected baby. After all, she could barely afford to feed the children she already had.

Between the months of September 1975 and January 1976, this woman had three therapeutic abortions in an attempt to rid herself of the unborn baby. These abortions, also known as a "salting out procedure" are performed by injecting a very large syringe into the woman's abdomen, removing a certain amount of amniotic fluid out of the womb, and then injecting three times the amount of saline back in, thus "burning" the baby out. For reasons only God knows, these abortions did not take and on April 21, 1976, two months premature, her baby was born. The child was perfect and healthy, weighing four pounds, five ounces.

Unfortunately on March 16, 1977, the mother passed away, less than a year after her baby girl was born. After the woman's death, the infant's father and paternal grandmother took custody of the baby and her two brothers. As this baby girl grew up, her father told her about the three abortions she had undergone in her mother's womb but this little girl never believed him, as she assumed that if a baby is aborted, he or she could not possibly survive.

The truth only came to this girl when she was eighteen years old, married, and approximately five months pregnant with her first child. This girl needed and soon obtained her mother's medical records from the hospital that had treated her. Imagine her utter shock as she read about how her mother tried to terminate her unborn child three times. As the young girl read the medical documents, the new life inside of her was stirring and kicking as if to say "Mommy please don't get any ideas."

Today this young woman is 25 years old and is raising a family of her own. She is healthy and normal in every way, with no physical deformities of any kind.

I am the child that I have been writing about. My mother had no right to try and abort me, no matter what the circumstances were, no matter how inconvenient her pregnancy was. And if she was here with us today, I'm sure she would agree. Life is too precious to simply throw away. Now I can speak out against abortion from the baby's perspective. Any baby would choose life.

Amy

Abortion survivor to tell story at rally
By AMY WHITE
BEE STAFF WRITER
Last Updated: January 15, 2005, 06:28:27 AM PST

Gianna Jessen came into the world as a surprise. Her 17-year-old mother knew she was pregnant. She also knew she didn't want to be. She underwent an abortion procedure, having toxic saline solution injected into the womb during the third trimester.

Jessen, then in the womb for 7½ months, spent 18 hours in the solution. "It burns the baby inside and out," she said. "(The mother) is to deliver a dead baby within 24 hours." But when a 2-pound Jessen emerged, she was alive.

"I did not die that day," Jessen said. "I was delivered alive in a Los Angeles County abortion clinic in a room full of teenage girls who had already had the saline injections and were feeling their children die inside of them."

Jessen will tell her story Friday at a Sanctity of Life Rally in Modesto sponsored by the "11th Hour" TV program.

Raised in California, Jessen lives in Nashville, Tenn. She has traveled the world since she was 14, telling of her experience.

Jessen spent her first three months in a hospital incubator. Doctors at the hospital did not expect her to live, she said. But she did. She was then put in emergency foster care, before being placed at 17 months with a foster mother who would become her adoptive grandmother. Afflicted with cerebral palsy resulting from lack of oxygen in the womb, Jessen was "32 pounds of dead weight," she said. She wasn't expected to hold up her head, sit up, crawl or walk.

Her foster mother worked with Jessen, who at age 3½ began to walk with a walker and leg braces. Today, she walks with a slight limp in her left leg.

Jessen has done indoor rock climbing and is training for the Music City marathon in Nashville in a few months. She plans to take swing or tango dance lessons after that. Jessen also writes and performs songs, ranging from love ballads to social commentary.

"Never say never," she said in a recent phone interview. "A person and God always have the opportunity to progress. No matter what point you are at, you can always do something, even if it is just the tiniest thing."

On Christmas when she was 12, Jessen learned she had survived an abortion attempt. Before, when she had asked why she had cerebral palsy, her adoptive mother — the daughter of her foster mother — told her hers was a traumatic, premature birth. But that day when she asked, her mother decided Jessen was ready to hear the truth. She told her that her biological mother was young and without hope.

"I was aborted, right?" Jessen asked. Her adoptive mother confirmed it. Jessen was calm.

"It must have been the Lord, because I didn't freak out," Jessen remembered. "I totally believe that the Lord Jesus spared my life and I would not be walking today if it were not for the grace of God and the power of Christ. I know that when you need God to walk every day, you know that God is real."

Jessen said she never dwelled on feelings of rejection, and someday wants to have or adopt children herself.

Louise Shatswell, producer of "The 11th Hour," said she hopes those who hear Jessen will be touched by her story and "that their eyes will be opened to the reality of life at that stage of life."

The rally will include a question-and-answer session with Jessen, as well as counselors and literature from the Modesto Pregnancy Center.

It's impossible to know exactly how many babies survive abortion procedures, but it is rare, said Jessen, who met 11 others — ranging in age from young children to 65 years old — at a conference about 10 years ago.

Shatswell thinks Jessen's appearance brings another view to a society that endorses the idea that "if you don't want it, get rid of it," she said. "I don't believe the majority of people who get abortions are really informed about what they are doing.

"She is a living example of an unborn child being a child and not being a thing, a glob, an unidentified piece of nothing," Shatswell said. "It's a real-life living baby … and the sanctity of life that the Bible gives doesn't sanction killing a child, whether in the womb or outside the womb."

If a woman told her she was considering an abortion, Jessen said she would listen to her, then lead her to a pregnancy crisis center for tests and counseling.

"I would say that choosing to have an abortion is something she would never forget," said Jessen, who advocates adoption.

"Can't we just give a little and say, 'I may not be the best mother for this child, but I love this child enough to sacrifice for it'?" she asked. "Isn't that the ultimate love?"

Jessen is conscious that examples speak louder than words. She often talks to young people about the value of chastity, modesty and honor. She wants to remind people that all of their choices have consequences.

"My biological parents made some really poor choices," she said. "I forgive them for what they did (but) I live every day with the result of the 'choice' that my biological mother made 27 years ago. So it's ridiculous to think our choices on a moment-by-moment basis only affect us. They always affect someone else, for good or ill."

Jessen is sometimes unprepared for the grief that pours out from others when they hear her story. "Women who have had abortions have come up to me crying, saying, 'I wish I had never done this. I had no idea the pain I would live with for the rest of my life,'" she said.

Men, too, have talked to her of feeling powerless or regretful about supporting an abortion. "At the end of the day, I do a lot of listening," Jessen said.

It's not all listening. She met President Bush in 2002 and has appeared before Congress, including speaking against partial-birth abortion in 1999 and in support of the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act in 2000.

She said she doesn't often think about her mother's abortion. "I just spend my life trying to smile and overcome," she said. "Sometimes, it does hit me, 'Oh, my gosh, I was aborted; that's huge.' There are days I think about it and I think, 'This is amazing.' But my whole life has been, so far, kind of an adventure. I really look at life that way."

http://www.modbee.com/life/faithvalues/story/9774051p-10637283c.html