Wednesday 17 September 2008

On the eve of the Lower House debate on the Abortion Law Reform Bill 2008, Victoria’s Ad Hoc Interfaith Committee invited abortion survivor Gianna Jessen to address politicians at Queen’s Hall in the Victorian Parliament on 8 September.

Click here to download the full address by Gianna Jessen and Professor Graeme Clark (mp3, 14MB). To save the file, right click on the link and choose 'Save link as' or 'Save target as'.

The latest edition of Kairos Catholic Journal, available this weekend, carries the following report on Gianna's story.

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At the end of Gianna Jessen’s address, the body of 170 invited guests rose as one to applaud loud and long the abortion survivor from Nashville, Tennessee.

The Australian Christian Lobby and other pro-life groups sponsored Gianna’s visit to Australia so that she could brief senators (Federal Government) before their vote on Senator Guy Barnett’s disallowance motion to stop the Medicare funding of second-trimester and late-term abortions.

With the Abortion Law Reform Bill 2008 about to be debated in the Victorian Parliament, Victoria’s Ad Hoc Interfaith Committee invited Gianna to address politicians at Queen’s Hall in the Victorian Parliament on 8 September.

Representatives from various Christian churches and other faiths were present; as were up to 20 members of Parliament.

Gianna’s story is one out of the box — as is Gianna herself.

Gianna’s biological mother was 17 years old and seven and a half months pregnant when she made the decision to have a saline abortion. After being burned alive for 18 hours in the womb from the saline solution, Gianna was delivered alive at the Los Angeles County abortion clinic at 6am on 6 April 1977.

She weighed less than a kilogram at birth (0.9 kg) and suffered from cerebral palsy caused by the abortion. Doctors at the time said she would never be able to hold up her head, sit up, crawl or walk. However, she defied expectations, walking at the age of three with the help of leg braces and a walker, and going on to complete her first marathon on 30 April 2005.

Gianna was placed in foster care early in life, and was legally adopted by her foster mother’s daughter at the age of four.

Her travels and experiences have led her all over the world. She has addressed the US Congress several times. Her address at Queen’s Hall was riveting and inspirational; if only her message could echo around the country!

Calling herself 'God’s little girl', she proclaimed her love for Jesus Christ and challenged all men to fulfil their obligations as men to protect women and children and she challenged all women never to accept the abuse to which they are subject: "You are not made for abuse."

"If abortion is about women’s rights," Gianna said, "then what were mine? My life was being snuffed out in the name of women’s rights."

Seventy-five per cent of abortions in Australia take place in clinics. It is an industry. In Victoria in 2005, 45 children were born alive during an abortion. They are all dead now.

Professor Graeme Clark, founder and director emeritus of the Australian Bionic Ear Institute, also gave an address. He is also the former chairman of the Consultative Council for Maternal and Child Health for the Victorian Minister for Health.

He stressed he is not absolutely opposed to abortion but emphasised he believed it should only be carried out in very specific and limited circumstances. The professor said he could see many problems with the proposed changes to the law.

He spoke of the wonder of the human embryo and challenged the view that the embryo is just a potential human being. He said that "the embryo has a unique DNA that defines its humanness" and "that the more we learn about the brain the more we realise it is that which really defines us as human beings".

Further, he said that the foetus probably feels pain. "The foetus over 20 weeks shows all the signs of pain. The appropriate parts of the nervous system have developed; a withdrawal reflex occurs," he said.

"At delivery stress hormones can be found in the blood. When aborted the limbs contract in spasmodic ways."

Professor Clark said that we do well to remember that at late term, the foetus is a living, moving and hearing individual responding to sound and other stimuli.