An international pro-life speaker who was conceived by rape has addressed delegates at the SPUC 2020 youth conference. Speaking at the conference in Bedfordshire, Rebecca Kiessling discussed the infinite value of her life and every life, regardless of the circumstances of conception.
Ms Kiessling was adopted not long after her birth. Aged 18 she discovered that she was conceived out of a brutal rape at knife-point by a rapist. She has been an international pro-life speaker since 1995 and is founder of the pro-life organisation, Save the 1. Thousands of people have heard her story and come to understand that no unborn child should be killed because of the circumstances of their conception.
"I am the good that came out of something evil"
Speaking to the SPUC youth conference delegates, Ms Kiessling said: "I was 18 when I first learned I was conceived in rape and I immediately felt targeted. I felt like I had at least half the world was against me. There are all these people who don’t even know me who stand in judgement of my life and are quick to dismiss it because of how I was conceived... People spoke about my life as if I was garbage like I was disposable.
"Gallup polls in the US show that 63% believe in the rape exception, and I knew I had to justify my own existence and prove to the world I shouldn’t have been aborted...
"We are called by the pro-abortion lobby demon seed, rape trophy, tainting the gene pool, satan’s spawn, child of the devil. We are despised and targeted to be killed. We are the only group of people alive today that it is acceptable to despise
"How does an innocent child deserve the death penalty... It Is barbaric to punish an innocent person for someone else’s crime... I am the good that came out of something evil."
"Life is precious no exceptions"
Earlier this year, as reported by SPUC, a man who was conceived by rape spoke out against activists using rape as an exception to justify abortion.
Speaking at the West Coast March for Life, Nathan and his birth mother addressed the crowds to discuss the ‘rape exception’ which sadly is used increasingly by people who identify as pro-life as an exception which justifies abortion.
Nathan said: "Often when you hear the pro-life/pro-abortion debate, what is disheartening is that even some of those who identify as pro-life make a little exception. You’ve heard it before … ‘I am pro-life except, except in cases of rape.’
"I want everyone to realize --especially the ‘excepters’-- that you’re talking about me, and everyone like me. Life is life, no exceptions. Life is a gift, no exceptions. Life is precious, no exceptions."