BY REBECCA GRACE | AFA Journal Staff Writer

"This is the White House calling. You need to call us." These are the words Gianna Jessen heard as she listened to her voicemail.

Eager to the return the call she assumed was a joke, she dialed the number. The voice on the other end gave her news she never expected to hear: "You need to get on a plane within two days because you’re going to meet the president in Pittsburgh. He’s signing the bill that you testified in favor of a couple of years ago."

Reality set in as Jessen arrived in Pittsburgh and was led into a crowded room where she met President George W. Bush. She was too nervous to speak, but Bush calmed her anxiety with a hug.

"The president of the United States is treating me like his next-door neighbor," Jessen remembers thinking.

"This is the way I need to be in leadership," she thought. "The Scripture that kept running through my mind [was] ‘He who is chief among you will be the servant of all.'"

But a lesson in leadership was not all Jessen learned that day. Later, she mustered enough courage to speak to the president.

"Oh, Mr. President, I have to tell you that I so respect you that I don’t know what to say," Jessen said. "You need to know that we are praying for you."

"That’s the greatest gift you can give to a president," Bush replied.

"At this moment, [having never known my real father], it was like the president became my father because he looked right into my face with the kindest, strongest voice and said, ‘You are so sweet!’ And then he looked at me and said, ‘I’m not going to let you down,’" Jessen recalled.

"He kissed me on the cheek, hugged me again and went on his way.

"And that changed my life" — a life God, the Creator, chose to spare nearly 28 years ago in the darkness of an abortion clinic.

A near-death experience
Jessen is an abortion survivor who now spends her life speaking up for the speechless. She was invited to meet the president on August 5, 2002, as a result of her standing before Congress and testifying on behalf of the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act that Bush signed into law that day.

As described by National Right to Life, "The law guarantees that every infant born alive enjoys full legal rights under federal law, regardless of his or her stage of development or whether the live birth occurred during an abortion."

The law came 25 years too late for Jessen but not a minute too soon for the countless number of babies that are yet to be born. However, Jessen knows that it was because of the sheer power of Jesus Christ that she survived a saline abortion in 1977 after her biological mother went to a Planned Parenthood clinic in southern California.

"I was that baby she aborted," Jessen said, or at least attempted to abort by allowing an abortionist to inject a saline salt solution into her womb. The plan is for the baby to gulp the solution which burns the child both inside and out before she is delivered dead within 24 hours. After being burned alive in her mother’s womb for 18 hours, Jessen was delivered alive in the abortion clinic.

"The abortionist … was not on duty the moment I came into this world," Jessen added. "Had he been there, he would have ended my life with strangulation, suffocation or [by] leaving me there to die, which was considered perfectly legal up until … President Bush signed … the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act to prevent that from happening any further. Now a child who goes through something like that must receive proper medical care."

God’s plan for Jessen was unfolding as evident from the medical care she received after a nurse at the abortion clinic called an ambulance and had this two-pound life transported to a hospital where Jessen refused to die.

"The abortionist had to sign my birth certificate," Jessen said. "A few hours before, he was trying to take my life, and then a few hours later he had to acknowledge it."

A will to live
Although Jessen was full of life from the moment of conception, surviving the abortion was only the beginning of what appeared to be a bleak future.

Following an extended hospital stay, Jessen was placed in emergency foster care where she was mistreated before being rescued by a foster mother named Penny.

"I needed love, … and she took me home [at 17 months]," Jessen said.

By this time, Jessen was 32 pounds of dead weight . She was never expected to lift her head, sit up, crawl, walk or sing. Jessen was also diagnosed with cerebral palsy caused by the lack of oxygen to her brain during the abortion.

The doctor told Penny that she should give up on the thought of Jessen progressing beyond a vegetative state.

"Doesn’t this language sound strangely familiar?" Jessen asked. "Didn’t we hear the same language over and over last March in regards to a woman named Terri Schiavo?

"So my point being … we cannot take the lives of weak people just because they make us uncomfortable," she said. "Just maybe those weak people might be forcing us to deal with the issues in our own souls."

Jessen explained how she could relate to Schiavo, who survived for 13 days after being deprived of food and water, because Jessen had the same will to live as a struggling infant.

"When you want to live you fight," Jessen said. "The person, whether or not she can speak, is speaking volumes by the fact that she will not give in to death. …[So] this has gotten me thinking about why in the world we are so eager to end the lives of weak people.

"Penny wasn’t one of those people. She worked with me three times a day with my physical therapy… , and I wasn’t her only foster child. There were times when she had five [children] at once, and she did my physical therapy anyway, and I began to hold my head up."

By three-and-a-half years old, Jessen began to walk with the aid of a walker and leg braces.

"Now don’t you think that’s early for someone who was never supposed to be anything more than a vegetable?" Jessen asked. "So ‘it is not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord of Hosts,’ and I believe with all my heart that the miraculous is possible."

A race to run
After four surgeries, including a severe spinal surgery, Penny taught Jessen to walk again. Now, she walks with only a slight limp and has taken on the challenge of running marathons while pursuing a career as a singer and songwriter.

She completed her first marathon in April 2005 in her hometown of Nashville, Tennessee.

"It took me seven-and-a-half hours, but I didn’t quit," Jessen said. "It was the most unbelievable day."

Jessen began her marathon stint about two years ago when she went into a gym and met a trainer. At the time, Jessen could only lift 30 pounds of weight with her legs, so her new trainer didn’t expect a strenuous workout regimen to last more than about two weeks.

However, a year later Jessen was crossing the finish line of a national marathon, a feat she tackled for several reasons. One reason was to honor Penny, who became Jessen’s grandmother after Penny’s daughter, Dianna, officially adopted Jessen.

"[Plus] I do this for people to give them hope so that they can see that the impossible is possible," she explained.

Jessen is working as a volunteer for Stars Organization Supporting Cerebral Palsy (S.O.S.), which is designed to promote awareness of and support for people with cerebral palsy. She is accepting donations and sponsorships at www.justgiving.com/giannajessen for her participation in the Flora London Marathon 2006 in April.

At the same time, God continues to teach Jessen lessons in humility and obedience that are more rewarding than a first place finish. The training process has become a means of healing from the emotional pain associated with her abortion.

"[For example], when I started running marathons, a dear friend of mine was working on my leg [muscles] with massage," Jessen explained.

The moment the massage began, Jessen burst into sobs. She immediately knew it was because the physical hand of love had not touched her when she was small.

"That part of me was completely abandoned, and I felt like it was the Lord just touching me and healing [me]," she said.

Jessen was not traumatized when she first found out, at the age of 12, that she had survived an abortion.

"The things I’ve been traumatized by are the results of that [abortion]," she admitted, "so there are things that God is really healing now that I didn’t even know needed to be healed."

A life to lead
Although Jessen no longer suffers physical pain, her life continues to be full of difficult challenges that she believes began at the moment she was conceived. However, her personal relationship with Christ, which began when she was four years old, is what has brought her to where she is today.

"I adore the Lord!" she said. "He is my Father… , but I would be a liar and not so true of a Christian if I said [that] every day is just one big 24-hour piece of bliss.

"You can’t handle anything on your own except by the strength and the grace of God that is propelling you forward and helping you overcome in victory by His grace," she added. "There is unbelievable, beautiful treasure in the midst of pain and weakness," which is why she is able to see her cerebral palsy as a gift rather than a disability.

"He healed me by taking away my desire to be healed and showing me the tremendous life that I will lead. … It seems like the more challenges, the more joy I get," Jessen explained.

"I don’t want to be a person who quits. I want to make a mark on this world."

For more information or to book Gianna Jessen for a speaking event:
www.giannajessen.com

www.nashspeakers.com (phone: 615-263-4143)

Pro-Life/Crisis Pregnancy Resources:
www.care-net.org

www.beavoice.net

www.nrlc.org