Abortion Survivors Exist, and Their Testimonies Should Shake Us All

There is nothing more powerful than a survivor’s testimony. Whether it’s a natural disaster, man-made terror, or a terminal illness, those who endure an extreme trial, and live to tell about it, inspire, challenge, and change us. I am moved by reading and hearing their stories. The strength of these individuals is of a special caliber.

More than 57,000,000 victims of abortion have been silenced by choice and are unable to share a story of miraculous survival. They are forgotten by many, remembered by few, and, unfortunately, each life fades into the bigger number until the weight of that amount barely registers with us. We often speak of the victims of abortion in these terms: “The person who could have discovered a cure for cancer might have been aborted!”

Sure, that’s possible, but I think this mindset fails to focus on the normalcy which abortion has destroyed. Of course, some amazing medical pioneer might have been aborted, but people who might have been your neighbors were aborted. The person who might have handed you your morning coffee was aborted. This is the full weight of abortion: not focusing on the few who may have become celebrated, but on the enormity of the loss as a whole. We should feel a punch to the gut as we realize entire communities of people are gone forever.

On September 9, two abortion survivors testified before the House Judiciary Committee regarding Planned Parenthood atrocities. I am sure Planned Parenthood executives who were in attendance shook their heads at these “ones who got away”. Both Gianna Jessen and Melissa Ohden gave powerful testimonies as to their survival. Each miraculously survived an attempted saline abortion. This type of abortion involves injecting saline into the womb, in an effort to burn the unborn child to death.

Gianna’s testimony in particular struck me. As a result of oxygen deprivation to her brain during the botched abortion, she has cerebral palsy. I’ve watched her testimony several times, and it never ceases to be one of the most powerful and truthful things I have ever heard/seen from the pro-life movement. If you have a spare six minutes and 50 seconds, please watch.

Some excerpts:

“Planned Parenthood is not ashamed of what they have done or continue to do, but we will have to give an account as a nation before God for our apathy and for the murder of over 50 million children in the womb. Every time we falter in courage as individuals and fail to confront this evil, I wonder; how many lives have been lost in our silence while we make sure we are lauded among men, and that we don’t offend anyone?”

“You continuously use the arguments if the baby is disabled, we need to terminate the pregnancy…as if you can determine the quality of someone’s life? Is my life less valuable due to my cerebral palsy? You have failed in your arrogance and greed to see one thing; it is often from the weakest among us that we learn wisdom, something sorely lacking in our nation today, and it is both our folly and our shame that blinds us to the beauty of adversity.”

“Do not tell me this is only a women’s issue. It takes both a man and a woman to create a child, and to that point I wish to speak to the men listening to me: You are made for greatness. You were born to defend women and children, not to use and abandoned us, nor sit idly by while you know we are being harmed, and I am asking you to be brave.”

These two voices, that of Gianna and Melissa, were supposed to be silenced by a horrific procedure which is legal in the good ‘ol USA. Their appearance at the hearing and continued activism for the pro-life cause is a physical reminder to us, and should bring us discomfort as we realize the victims they represent. How many unborn Giannas and Melissas have been vacuumed out, burned, or ripped apart due to convenience?

In her testimony, Gianna shared the following quote:

“The receptivity of the masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous. In consequence of these facts, all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points, and must harp on these in slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand by your slogan.”

You may have heard this before. It came from Adolf Hitler.

The propaganda that Planned Parenthood has spewed and will continue to spew regardless of videos or testimony is that of “choice”. They understand many won’t question their procedure of death or its slogan if it’s connected (falsely) to women’s health or even just the idea of a “right”. This is the lie which fueled the abortion attempts that Gianna and Melissa survived. They are some of the few who lived when others didn’t want them to. They are the survivors of an abortion holocaust.