September 9, 2015 — Hearing on “Planned Parenthood Exposed” before the Committee on the Judiciary, US House of Representatives, Washington DC

Good morning. My name is Gianna Jessen, and I would like to thank you so much for the opportunity to testify here today. My biological mother was 7-and-a-half months pregnant when she went to a Planned Parenthood and they
advised her to have a late-term saline abortion.

This method of abortion burns the baby inside and out, blinding and suffocating the child, who is then born dead usually within 24 hours. And there should be a photo there.

Yes. This is what I survived.

Instead of dying, after 18 hours of being burned in my mother’s womb, I was delivered alive in an abortion clinic in Los Angeles on April the 6th, 1977. You can see a photo as well of my medical records. My medical records state, “born alive during saline abortion, 6 a.m.” Victory. Thankfully the abortionist was not at work yet. Had he been there, he would have ended my life with strangulation, suffocation, or leaving me there to die. Instead, a nurse called an ambulance, and I was rushed to a hospital. Doctors did not expect me to live. I did.

I was later diagnosed with cerebral palsy which was caused by a lack of oxygen to my brain while surviving an abortion. I was never supposed to hold up my head or walk. I do. And cerebral palsy, ladies and gentlemen, is a tremendous gift to me.

I was eventually placed in foster care and later adopted, and hear me clearly. I forgive my biological mother. Within the first year after my birth, I was used as an expert witness in a case where an abortionist had been caught strangling a child to death after being born alive.

Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, said the following: “The most merciful thing that a large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.” Planned Parenthood is not ashamed of what they have done or continues to do, but we will have to give an account as a Nation before God for our apathy and for the murder of over 50 million children in the womb.

Every time we falter in courage as individuals and fail to confront this evil, I wonder how many lives have been lost in our silence while we make sure we are lauded among men and that we do not offend anyone. How many children have died and been dismembered and their parts sold for our ego, our convenience, and our promiscuity? How many Lamborghinis were purchased with the blood innocent children, the blood that cries to the Lord from the ground like that of the blood of Abel? Not one of them, ladies and gentlemen, is forgotten by Him.

I would ask Planned Parenthood the following questions 38 years later. I would ask them these questions. If abortion is  about women’s rights, then what were mine? You continuously use the argument if the baby is disabled we need to terminate the pregnancy as if you can determine the quality of someone’s life. Is my life less valuable due to my cerebral palsy? You have failed in your arrogance and greed to see one thing. It is often from the weakest among us that we learn wisdom, something sorely lacking in our Nation today, and it is both our folly and our shame that blinds us to the beauty of adversity.

Planned Parenthood uses deception, the manipulation of language, and slogans, such as “a woman’s right to choose,” to achieve their monetary aims. I will illustrate how well they employ this technique with the following quote: “The receptivity of the masses is very limited. Their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous. In consequence of these facts, all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want  him to understand by your slogan.” Adolf Hitler.

We often hear that if Planned Parenthood were to be defunded there would be a health crisis among women without the services they provide. This is absolutely false. Pregnancy resource centers are located nationwide as an option for the woman in crisis. All of their services are free and confidential. They can be reached by texting helpline to 313131. There is access to vital exams for women other than Planned Parenthood. We are not a nation without options.

Planned Parenthood receives $500 million of taxpayer money a year to primarily destroy and dismember babies. Do not tell me these are not children. A heartbeat proves that, so does 40 ultrasounds. So do I, and so does the fact that they are selling human organs for profit. Do not tell me this is only a woman’s issue. It takes both a man and a woman to create a child.

And to that point I wish to speak to the men listening to me. You are made for greatness. You were born to defend women and children, not to use and abandon us, nor sit idly by while you know we are being harmed. And I am asking you to be brave.

In conclusion, let me say I am alive because of the power of Jesus Christ alone, in Whom I live, move, and have my being. Without Him, I would have nothing, and with Him I have all.

Thank you.

Source: Hearing Before the Committee on the Judiciary, US House of Representatives, 114th Cong., 1st Sess., (Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 2015), pp. 13-15.