Once aborted, speaker has overcome disabilities

Catholic New World staff writer Michelle Martin talks with Gianna Jessen.

Gianna Jessen, 29, knows something about adversity.

She was born alive in a California abortion clinic when her birth mother was 7 fi months pregnant, and she was not expected to live. When she did survive, doctors then thought she would be blind and unable to move—not even to hold up her head—because of cerebral palsy resulting from complications of her birth. Now she works as a speaker, a singer/songwriter and writer. She has finished two marathons, and is studying the real estate business. Now she faces new challenges—among them, dating with cerebral palsy. She will share her story at the Chastity Education Benefit Dinner Nov. 18 at the Drury Lane-Oakbrook Terrace.

The Catholic New World: Tell me about your birth. I understand one of the reasons you are speaking is that your mother tried to abort you.

Gianna Jessen: She did abort me. I went through the whole process, except dying. I was burned in her womb (with chemicals) for 18 hours before I was born, and I was supposed to be dead. I’m obviously alive.

I was born in an abortion clinic, but the abortionist wasn’t on duty. If he was … at the time it was legal to kill a child born alive during an abortion by strangulation, suffocation or just leaving them to die. But he wasn’t there, and it was a nurse who called an ambulance and had me transported to a hospital, where they put me in an incubator. I was 2 pounds, and they didn’t expect me to live, but I kept living.

They eventually put me in emergency foster care, but the first home was not a good situation, so they moved me to another foster home.

My foster mother in the second home was wonderful. Her name was Penny. At that time, I was 17 months old and 32 pounds of dead weight. I couldn’t move, and they said I would never move. But she started working with me, and I started to be able to hold up my head and then to move and to crawl and to walk with a walker and leg braces. Now I don’t need a walker or braces; I just have a slight limp.

My foster mother’s daughter adopted me when I was 3fi, so my foster mother is now my grandmother.

TCNW: When did you first learn the story of your birth?

GJ: When I was 12. My foster mother told me. I wasn’t traumatized by it. It was kind of a relief. Up until that time, my life had been one of overcoming and struggling and joy. I would never wish not to have cerebral palsy—I have learned so much from it—but I would become an outcast, overcome, have another surgery. After that, it was a big relief to hear that God went to such great lengths to save my life. He had a plan for me.

TCNW: Did you get your faith in God from your foster mother and mother?

GJ: My grandmother lived Christianity for me. She taught me to fight and win. She cared for 56 foster children on her own, as a single woman.

TCNW: How well were you accepted by other children?

GJ: I wasn’t really well accepted. But God usually allowed me to have at least one friend—and my friend and I had a great time. In a way, it was really good training, on how to be an individual thinker, how to be alone, to learn what matters in life.

What’s been difficult now is the transformation from being the special little girl with cerebral palsy who is inspiring everyone to becoming the woman who dates with cerebral palsy.

I know that I will marry an extremely special man at some point. Right now, I’m getting through the shallowness, and that can be a painful experience. I’ve had it said to me that I’m beautiful as long as I’m sitting down. It’s like, “Don’t show us your weakness.” That’s just bull.

The Lord Jesus loves me, he thinks I’m beautiful, and he will bring me a man who thinks that too. And I will be a beautiful wife and mother because I’ve suffered.

TCNW: Why did you decide to run a marathon?

GJ: Because I am so stubborn. That’s a good thing. If I didn’t have a will and stubbornness, there’s no way I could do what I do. … I just thought I was settling in terms of physical fitness, and no one would know, because of my cerebral palsy. But I don’t use my disability either to define me or to make excuses with, so I went to a gym and hired a trainer and worked out an hour a day five days a week. I was progressing so well that when I saw the flyer about the Nashville Marathon, I asked her if she thought she could train me to do that. She said yes, and I finished in 7fi hours. I went to London and I finished in 8 hours and 20 minutes—that was because I met a handsome Englishman who complicated things.

I think I also did it to find out if I’m beautiful. I have a hard time looking at my reflection sometimes, and I have to find a way of combating what I’m told.

TCNW: When you speak to young people, what message do you want them to take away?

GJ: To value other people and to value themselves enough to have standards, to be able to take a stand without wavering, to be a culture-changer, because they have spines mixed with kindness.

Just having a spine is not enough. A spine without kindness can be bad. But a spine mixed with kindness can lead you to the truth, and that changes things.

Tickets for the Nov. 18 benefit for the Chastity Education Initiative cost $50 for youths 12-18 and $75 each for adults. The evening starts at 6:30 p.m. with a reception, followed by dinner at 7:30 p.m. For information, call (312) 751-5355.