Gianna Jessen
| Gianna Jessen | |
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Gianna Jessen as a featured speaker by the Alliance Defense Fund Banquet at Meadowview in Kingsport.
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| Born |
April 6, 1977 Los Angeles, California |
| Residence | Franklin, Tennessee |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Pro-Life activist |
| Known for | Speech at Constitution Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee, April 22, 1996. |
| Website | www |
Gianna Jessen (born April 6, 1977) is an American pro-life and disability rights activist. She is a survivor of a failed saline abortion attempt.
Jessen was born April 6, 1977 in Los Angeles, California. Her medical records indicate that she was born in the 30th week of pregnancy to a 17-year-old girl during a failed saline abortion. Jessen's birth certificate is signed by the doctor who was performing the abortion.
Jessen weighed 2 lbs (0.91 kg) at birth, and she was born with cerebral palsy, a motor condition that affects various areas of body movement. She describes it as a "tremendous gift". Jessen spent three months in the hospital before being placed in foster care. She was adopted at the age of four.
Jessen's career as an activist began in 1991, when she was 14, after her adoptive mother, Dianna DePaul, told Jessen she was born to a 17-year-old girl, during a failed abortion attempt. Jessen has since campaigned against abortion, saying "It's more comfortable for people to think of abortion as a political decision, or a right. But I am not a right. I am a human being". Jessen said she's forgiven her birth mother, but is not interested in a relationship with her, citing a strong relationship with her adoptive mother. Jessen has also campaigned against exceptions to late-term abortion laws, on the grounds of fetal disability, citing her own disability. Jessen appeared on the Maury Povich Show with her adoptive mother in 1991. In reporting her story and publicizing Jessen's early life to the nation, the New York Times observed that Jessen and Becky Bell, a teenage girl who reportedly died as a result of an unsafe abortion in 1988, had become the symbols of America's debate over abortion and characterized them as "poster girls whose stories are being shrewdly marketed by their supporters to keep passions high." Jessen is a stage name that was adopted when she began her activism.
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