The touching story of Gianna Jessen, 35, has been made into a movie called “October Baby”
Domenico Agasso Jr.
Rome
“My name is Gianna Jessen. I was aborted, and I did not die. My biological mother was seven months pregnant when she went to Planned Parenthood in Southern California and they advised her to have a late-term saline abortion. A saline abortion involves a solution of salt saline that is injected into the mother’s uterus. The baby then gulps the solution, it burns the baby inside and out, and then the mother is to deliver a dead baby within 24 hours. This happened to me! I remained in the solution for approximately 18 hours and was delivered alive April 6, 1977 at 6 a.m. in a California abortion clinic.” Today Gianna Jessen, abortion survivor, is a 35-year old woman. Her touching story been made into a movie called “October Baby,” while she continues to travel the world sharing her powerful tale.

“There were young women in the room,” she said in her testimony to the U.S. Congress some years ago, “who had already received their injections and were waiting to give birth to dead babies. When they saw me, they experienced the horror of murder. A nurse called an ambulance, and had me transferred to the hospital. Fortunately for me, the abortion doctor wasn’t at the clinic. I had arrived early - they didn’t expect me to die until 9:00 a.m., when he would have arrived for the shift change. I’m sure that I wouldn’t be here today if the abortion doctor had been at the clinic.” For many, Gianna Jessen was just a “botched abortion,” the result of a “job done badly.” But, with force and determination, Gianna argues that she was saved “by the sheer power of Jesus Christ.” “I should be blind,” she continued, “burned...I should be dead! And yet, I live!” “I was in hospital for about three months,” she continued. “There was not much hope for me at first. I weighed only 9 ounces.” But “a doctor once told me that I had a great desire to live and that I fought for my life. In the end, I was able to leave the hospital and be put up for adoption.” But Gianna is not in good health: “Due to a lack of oxygen supply during the abortion, I live with cerebral palsy.

“When I was diagnosed with this, all I could do was lie there.” So, after winning the battle against death, Gianna must now also struggle with disability, as a distinctly disadvantaged innocent: “They told my foster mother that I would have difficulties ever being able to crawl or walk. I could not pull myself up or sit up by myself.” But “through prayer and the hard work of my foster mother, and then so many other people, I eventually learned to sit, crawl, and stand. I was walking at age 3 1/2 with the help of a walker and leg braces.” Gianna was then “legally adopted by my foster mother’s daughter, Diana De Paul. A few months later, I began to walk. I continued with physical therapy, and after 4 surgeries, I can now walk without assistance.” It is not easy, but Gianna takes it “philosophically,” with irony: “Sometimes I fall, but after 19 years, I’ve learned to fall gracefully.”

And Gianna has a great big “thank you” to share: “I am so grateful for my cerebral palsy. It allows me to really depend on Jesus for everything. I am happy to be alive. I almost died. Every day I thank God for life. I do not consider myself a by-product of conception, a chunk of tissue, or any of the other of the names given to a baby in the womb. I do not think any person conceived is one of those things.” She has met “other abortion survivors. They are all thankful for life,” like Sarah, for example. “Sarah also has cerebral palsy, but her diagnosis is not good. She is blind and has severe problems. The abortionist, in addition to injecting her mother with saline, also injected the littlest victims.” Sarah's head was injected with the solution. “When I speak,” she said, “I don’t speak only for myself but also for other survivors, like Sarah, and also for those who cannot speak ...” Despite her cerebral palsy, Gianna has become a tireless activist for the pro-life movement. She has told her story not only to the US Congress, but also to the UK House of Commons, the Australian Parliament, and dozens of other venues, including various TV broadcasts. And in 2006 she participated in and completed the London Marathon to help raise awareness of the problem of abortion. In her pilgrimage to spread the culture of life, she has an unbeatable “trump card”: “The best thing I can show others in order to defend life is my own life. It was a great gift. Killing is not the answer to any problem or situation. All life has value. All life is a gift from our Creator. We must receive and hold onto the gifts that are given us. We must honour the right to life. When the freedoms of a group of helpless citizens - the unborn, infants, the disabled, and the supposedly ‘imperfect’ – are violated, it is clear our freedoms as a nation and as individuals are also in great danger.”
http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/homepage/inquiries-and-interviews/detail/articolo/gianna-jessen-us-stati-uniti-estados-unidos-15198/