(LifeSiteNews) – Researching the testimony and opinions of women who conceived children in rape reveals a surprising, even shocking finding: The great majority of women who aborted their children in rape regret their abortion, and the great majority of those who carried their child to term are happy they did so.
It is a little-discussed finding, in part because it deflates the arguments of abortion supporters who hold sway over the mainstream media narrative on abortion. But it is a monumental one, not least because contrary to popular opinion, women testify that their children conceived through rape have redeemed their life, not worsened it.
The beautiful testimonies of the great love that mothers have for their children of rape are must-reads for anyone weighing in on the abortion debate, including JP Sears, who recently invoked rape as reason to keep abortion legal during early stages, despite his belief that abortion is evil.
One of the most powerful stories is that of Lianna Rebolledo, who was brutally raped at age 12 and left disfigured and suicidal.
“It was very violent. I honestly thought they were going to kill me,” she told LifeSiteNews in a video interview in 2015.
A doctor told Lianna that she did not have to hold onto something that would constantly remind her of that horrible night, but when she asked the doctor if abortion would help her forget the rape and ease her pain and suffering, the doctor replied, “No.”
“If abortion wasn’t going to heal anything, I didn’t see the point,” she said.
“I just knew that I had somebody inside my body. I never thought about who her biological father was. She was my kid. She was inside of me. Just knowing that she needed me, and I needed her … it made me want to work, to get a job [to support her],” she said.
Lianna now realizes that her daughter helped give her the healing she so desperately needed. “In my situation, two lives were saved. I saved my daughter’s life, but she saved my life,” she said.
“It was really hard, but just to see that little person telling me how happy she was that I gave her her life. When she said that — and she was only four years old when she told me: ‘Mommy thank you for giving me life’ — I realized that she was the one who gave me my life back.”
“She’s always been there for me. She’s the only person who has shown me a real love. And I always will be grateful,” she said.
Astoundingly, Lianna said that she would go through all the humiliation, pain, and suffering again if it meant knowing and loving her daughter.
“Even though [the rape] was a very hard moment, if I had to go through that [again] just to know and to love my daughter, I would go through that again.”
Another woman named Ashley, who became pregnant through rape at age 13, has also spoken of her son as having saved her life.
“I swear if it wasn’t for Aiden, I wouldn’t be here today. He has impacted my life more than anyone could ever imagine at a time when I was falling apart. I was 13 years old, terrified, not knowing what the future would hold for me,” Ashley told Monica Kelsey, who was herself conceived in rape, in 2015.
At the time, she said, “Now I’m 16, completely confident in what my future will be as a mommy, a mentor, and a best friend. Now here he is … So smart, so big, so full of life, and so happy. God blessed me with him and I wouldn’t want my life any other way. I love my son. Aiden saved me.”
The flip side of such stories are those of women who say having an abortion after rape only worsened their trauma, such as Serena Dyksen, who has shared, “There is not a day that goes by where I do not think of that aborted baby. What if always comes to mind. I know God had a purpose for that baby.”
Dysken’s experience of her post-rape abortion as “traumatic” is quite common. An amicus brief submitted by the Family Research Council in 2006 points out, “Interestingly, the effects of abortion are very similar to the effects of rape,” and psychotherapists have found it can cause post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The brief goes on to note, “Even the Alan Guttmacher Institute, Planned Parenthood’s research organization, estimates that as many as 91 percent of all women who have had abortions may suffer from physical and psychological ‘post- procedural trauma.'”
The brief included the testimony of one woman who said that after her post-rape abortion she “cried for days, suffered from horrible nightmares … would feel overcome with grief and pain and dreamed about dead babies, and was “unable to maintain a job or function.”
“In my experience, abortion only compounded the trauma and pain I was already experiencing. I was an innocent victim of the horrible crime, but in choosing to abort, to kill, the innocent child growing within me, I lowered myself to the level of the rapist. I too committed a crime against a defenseless baby who had done nothing wrong.”
“While [abortion] may seem to be the quickest and easiest solution to a painful, humiliating ‘problem,’ it is a band-aid approach with horrible ramifications of its own,” she concluded.
The testimonies of both women who gave birth to their children conceived in rape and those who decided to abort them desperately need to be shared, to save the lives not only of these children, but of their mothers.
