BRAMPTON, Ontario, April 24, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Conservative MP Kyle Seeback openly admits that he was once “fairly comfortable” with the viewpoint that a pregnant woman should have the option to abort in the case of rape. He also says that even though he saw abortion as okay for rape and incest, he still thought of himself as “pro-life.”
But all that changed one day when Seeback was invited by Campaign Life Coalition in 2006 to attend a talk by Rebecca Kiessling, a woman who was conceived in rape and adamantly defends the right to life for everyone conceived in rape.
“It just resonated with me right away. I kept thinking: ‘Why would someone get to choose that she would not have a life.’ It didn’t make sense to me,” the MP from Brampton West told LifeSiteNews.com in an interview during Campaign Life Coalition’s National Pro-Life Conference in Toronto earlier this month.
Kiessling was conceived in rape prior to Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. landmark Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. Kiessling’s mother would have aborted her had abortion been legal at the time, but was ultimately prevented from doing so by Michigan state law. Kiessling calls the pro-life legislators active at the time she was conceived her “heroes” for having laws protecting her life.
Seeback said that Kiessling’s talk transformed his view on being pro-life except in the case of rape.
“If life begins at conception then abortion is taking a life. I don’t think that [abortion] is an appropriate response to a terribly traumatic event (rape),” he said.
“To say that because you went through a very terribly traumatic event (rape) — of course it was — you can then end someone else’s life? To me it just didn’t make sense [anymore].”
Seeback said that raped women who conceive should be presented adoption instead of abortion.
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“We have to find ways to help that woman. We have to find ways to heal her. I don’t think an abortion does that. I think abortion compounds the hurt that’s been done,” he said.
Studies show that women who have been raped and who bring their babies to term —whether to raise the child or to adopt — have a better psychological outcome than raped women who abort.
Seeback said that Kiessling’s testimony impacted a decision he and his wife faced in 2012 after learning they were expecting a child with Trisomy 18, a condition characterized by a wide variety of severe developmental abnormalities. Most babies with Trisomy 18 won’t survive pregnancy, and those who do will rarely live to see their first birthday.
Doctors repeatedly advised the couple to abort. But Seeback and his wife ignored their advice, carrying baby Elijah to term. The child died during birth.
Seeback said that the time he, his wife, and their two children had with Elijah in the hospital were the most precious moments of his life, adding that such a moment may not have happened but for the testimony of Rebecca Kiessling.
Seeback said that he takes a lot of abuse for being a 100 percent pro-life politician.
“There’s been a lot of hate on Twitter. My particular favorite is when they call me a ‘womb hater.’ I’m not sure where that comes from,” he said.
Seeback spoke at the National Pro-Life Conference April 3, telling attendees to vote for pro-life candidates to make a pro-life difference in the country, not the party.