I was adopted nearly from birth.  At 18, I learned that I was conceived out of a brutal rape at knife-point by a serial rapist.  Like most people, I’d never considered that abortion applied to my life, but once I received this information, all of a sudden I realized that, not only does it apply to my life, but it has to do with my very existence.  It was as if I could hear the echoes of all those people who, with the most sympathetic of tones, would say, “Well, except in cases of rape. . .  ,” or who would rather fervently exclaim in disgust: “Especially in cases of rape!!!”  All these people are out there who don‘t even know me, but are standing in judgment of my life, so quick to dismiss it just because of how I was conceived. I felt like I was now going to have to justify my own existence, that I would have to prove myself to the world that I shouldn’t have been aborted and that I was worthy of living. I also remember feeling like garbage because of people who would say that my life was like garbage — that I was disposable.

Please understand that whenever you identify yourself as being “pro-choice,” or whenever you make that exception for rape, what that really translates into is you being able to stand before me, look me in the eye, and say to me, “I think your mother should have been able to abort you.”  That’s a pretty powerful statement.  I would never say anything like that to someone.  I would say never to someone, “If I had my way, you’d be dead right now.”  But that is the reality with which I live.  I challenge anyone to describe for me how it’s not.  It’s not like people say, “Oh well, I‘m pro-choice except for that little window of opportunity in 1968/69, so that you, Rebecca, could have been born.”  No — this is the ruthless reality of that position, and I can tell you that it hurts and it’s mean.  But I know that most people don’t put a face to this issue.  For them, it’s just a concept — a quick cliche, and they sweep it under the rug and forget about it.  I do hope that, as a child of rape, I can help to put a face, a voice, and a story to this issue.   – Rebecca Kiessling

Originally posted on rebeccakiessling.com