The Daily Signal - #457: She Survived an Abortion Attempt. Now, She Defends Life.

Episode Date: May 8, 2019

It was just last month that the House failed to pass a bill protecting babies who survive an abortion attempt. Our executive editor, Rob Bluey, was able to sit down with a woman who survived just that—an abortion attempt, something few can imagine. Gianna Jessen now a pro-life activist, and today, we bring you her interview. Plus: The royal baby arrives.We also cover these stories:-Trump asserts executive privilege to block release of full unredacted Mueller report.-Court rules that Trump administration can keep sending asylum seekers to Mexico.-Trump's tax returns from the 80s and 90s come to light.The Daily Signal podcast is available on Ricochet, iTunes, SoundCloud, Google Play, or Stitcher. All of our podcasts can be found at DailySignal.com/podcasts. If you like what you hear, please leave a review. You can also leave us a message at 202-608-6205 or write us at [e-mail]. Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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I'm Rachel Del Judas in for Kate Trinko. And I'm Daniel Davis. It was just last month that the House failed to pass a bill protecting babies who survive an abortion attempt. While our executive editor, Rob Blowy, was able to sit down with a woman who survived just that, an abortion attempt, something few people can imagine. She's now a pro-life activist, and today we'll play you her interview. Plus, the Royal Baby has arrived. By the way, if you're enjoying this podcast, please consider leaving a review or a five-star rating on iTunes and encouraging others to subscribe. Now on to our top news.

Well, President Trump has asserted executive privilege to block the release of the full unredacted Mueller report, which House Democrats have subpoenaed. Attorney General William Barr refused to release the unredacted version to the House Judiciary Committee and the White House defended him, saying, quote, the Attorney General has been transparent and accommodating throughout this process, including by releasing the no collusion, no conspiracy, no obstruction, Mullah report to the public and offering to testify before the committee. These attempts to work with the committee have been flatly rejected. They didn't like the results of the report, and now they want a redo, end quote. Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell lambasted the Democrats for not accepting the results of the Mueller report.

Here's what he said on Tuesday. They told everyone there had been a conspiracy between Russia and the Trump campaign. Yet on this central question, the special counsel's finding is clear. Case closed. Case closed. This ought to be good news for everyone. But my Democratic colleagues seem to be publicly working through the five stages of grief. First stage is deny. Remember what happened when the Attorney General released his preliminary letter describing the special counsel's bottom line legal conclusion? Denial.

A Tuesday ruling from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is granting the Trump administration's request to return people seeking asylum back to Mexico while court proceedings play out. The court order, quote, reversed a decision by a San Francisco judge that would have blocked the policy, giving President Trump a temporary victory on. on immigration, according to Fox News, and will be considered on its merits at a lower court in San Francisco and could end up at the Supreme Court. Well, the New York Times finally got its hands on some of Trump's tax returns, though not recent ones. They're from the 1980s and early 90s. And the documents show a steady string of major financial losses. The Times reports that Trump lost well over a billion dollars from 1985 to 1994 to the point where he didn't owe federal taxes in eight of those years. The Times got this

information from someone anonymous with legal access to it and pieced it together by matching that data to IRS tax data that was publicly available. On Wednesday, President Trump downplayed the report but didn't dispute it, saying on Twitter, quote, you always wanted to show losses for tax purposes. Almost all real estate developers did, and often renegotiate with banks. It was sport. Additionally, the very old information put out is a highly inaccurate fake news hit job. More than 1% of people living in Guatemala and Honduras came into United States since September, according to the chief of the Homeland Security Department, and 3% of the population of one Guatemalan county have crossed into the United States.

The current migration flows, especially of vulnerable families and children, from Central America through Mexico to remote areas all along the U.S. border represent both the security and a humanitarian crisis. Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan said, adding that the situation is, quote, not sustainable. McAleinen said he expects the April numbers of illegal crossings to be even worse than those of March. Well, on Wednesday, Iran took steps to roll back pledges that it made in the 2015 nuclear

deal and threatened to roll back even more if international powers don't protect Iran from U.S. sanctions. The move came exactly one year to the date after the U.S. pulled out of the deal, a decision that led to added U.S. sanctions pressure on Iran. Iran's new changes seemed tailor-made to avoid violating the actual terms of the deal. It would halt the sale of enriched uranium and heavy water to other countries. But the U.S. seemed unfazed by the decision. Just hours afterward, the U.S. said it wasn't finished imposing sanctions on Iran, and that it would add more very soon. Up next, Rob Blue is interview with Gianna Jessen, an abortion survivor who now advocates for life. Are you looking for quick conservative policy solutions to current issues? Sign up for

Heritage's weekly newsletter, The Agenda. In the agenda, you will learn what issues Heritage Scholars on Capitol Hill are working on, what position conservatives are taking, and links to our in-depth research. The agenda also provides information on important events happening here at Heritage that you can watch online as well as media interviews from our experts. Sign up for the agenda on heritage.org today. We're joined at the Daily Signal by Gianna Janna Jena. Janna thanks so much for being with the Daily Signal. Thank you for having me. You are the survivor of a failed abortion attempt. You've become a pro-life advocate. You have such a powerful story. I want to begin there. Tell us about when you first found out

about this experience that you went through as a baby. I found out when I was 12. I'm adopted and I found it on Christmas Day, which is interesting. My life has always been bizarre. But yes, I'm adopted and my biological mother was 17 and she went to Planned Parenthood. You said, you know, you're too young to have a kid. You need to go have a late term saline abortion. A saline abortion is a saline salt solution that's injected into the mother's room. It burns, blind, and suffocates the baby. And then the baby's to be born dead. within 24 hours. My enemies love to say this doesn't occur anymore.

In fact, it is rare, but they still do occur. And my response to that is, even if one more occurs, isn't that one too many? I mean, you're burning a child alive. That's pretty horrific. And then they love to say that I'm lying because I have no burns on my body. But my medical records do, in fact, state

born during saline abortion, which is pretty clear. April the 6th, 1977, 6 a.m., 29.5 weeks gestation, 2.5 pounds. No resuscitation required upon arrival at the hospital, which is miraculous. And so I was speaking with a neonatologist in Italy, and he believes that the amniotic fluid was more powerful than the saline solution and protected me. But he was careful to also say, I believe it was Jesu. I believe it was Jesus. And I absolutely agree with him.

I am not ashamed of the gospel. And I have cerebral palsy as well. I was never supposed to hold up my head and all that. And so the fact that I'm able to walk is an absolute gift. Well, it is a blessing to have you here, and we're so thankful for the work that you do. You did mention you have cerebral palsy. So how has, you've also described that as a gift. though. So I wanted to hear from you as to, you know, what it's been like to live your life

and why, when you found out at the age of 12, you decided to move in the direction of being an advocate for pro-life values? Well, I mean, I think people need to know that their own life is precious. I mean, if you're going to discard God in society and you're going to be ashamed of Jesus, how are you going to teach people that they're valuable at all? For me, it's about telling you, hey, hey, you are valuable because you're created in the image of God. So I, my biological mother showed up unannounced at an event one day and said, you know, you are an embarrassment to this family and you are this and you are this and you are this and blah, blah, blah. She could have told me I was the devil himself and it wouldn't have mattered

because I'm not defined by her. I'm defined by Christ. So if people want to say, you know, leave Jesus out of this. You're too Jesus-y, you know, we're too sophisticated. for him now, right? We're just too sophisticated. However, I mean, I was never supposed to live. I was never supposed to hold up my head. I was never supposed to walk. You know what I mean? How could I be embarrassed? And so you've got to find your value somewhere. And so to more specifically answer your question, for me, it's about sharing the gospel. And then if I do that, I know the people's hearts will change and they will not end the lives of their children and also to bring relief to women and families who are tormented by the decision

to abort their children. I mean, where do you find peace really? Does that make sense? It does. And what are you, what is your message or how do you interact with other abortion survivors? Because there seems to be a growing number of you who are speaking out and talking about the value and sanctity of life. Yeah, we're just, we just kind of do our thing. I mean, I don't like go conventions and whatever of them. But, you know, we all obviously stand for life and are doing what we can to. You know, we face it, we're at a time when the New York State has adopted a law. Virginia's governor has spoken openly about infanticide. What do you think is wrong with the culture and how can we move to a direction where we actually value life? What do we need to do?

You know what I'm really tired of? I'm really tired of lip service. I'm really tired. I know there are some incredible pro-life people in Washington. I am so grateful for them and have been working for years. I get all that. But I also see that there are over 3,000 kids every day being killed in America, and I don't see people grieving.

I don't see people showing up with the same passion mixed with or combined with love that the proponents of them. abortions show up with. They're not showing up with love, obviously, but they show up with so much passion and they're so driven. And if we showed up with that level of passion with love to end this, to stop this, to take care of the women, to take care of the babies, to adopt all the kids, you know, it would end. But I don't think we really care. Well, there is a move in the U.S. Congress to bring to the floor in the U.S. House, despite the fact that Democrats are in control, the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act.

Yes, I was just there to support. Heritage Action is obviously fully supportive of the discharge petition. It really requires Democrats to sign on in order for it to get a vote on the floor. Tell us about your activism and what you're trying to do to change the way that that legislation moves forward

and maybe, you know, change some minds along the way. Yeah, I was just in an office of a Democrat and I was speaking to actually one of the staff members, and the guy was just stunned. Just stunned. He couldn't even hardly say a word. You could see that he had never thought about it. See, this is the thing.

I mean, people aren't, they're not, we're not allowed to be honest anymore. We don't want to talk about this. We don't want to think about these things. So we don't. And so when you're sitting in front of someone who was supposed to be dead and is bearing the consequences of,

surviving an abortion, though I'm not a victim, or a feminist. And I say that because I believe that the modern-day feminist, there are two requirements to be that you have to hate men and you have to consider yourself a victim every day of someone. And I'm too empowered for that. So I want to make that clear. I don't hate men. But to answer your question, I take it one heart at a time.

one heart at a time because they're not thinking about people they're thinking about an issue and we've got to win this issue but when you put humanity to it and you connect their humanity to it does that make sense

it does well I'd like you to talk about what that experience is like so you walk into a Democratic member of Congress's office you talk to a staffer how do you first approach that conversation what is it like to explain your own story and have you been able to win over their hearts and minds after you share your

experience many times yes if I am dealing with a man I remind him that he's made for honor that he's made to protect women and children which you're not supposed to say anymore and I will never forget when I was in Australia I walked into the member of Parliament's office and I I reminded him of that and he began to tear up and he said it has been 30 years since a woman has walked into my office and said these things to me and reminded me of these things you know if we forget about honor if we forget about who we are then everything falls apart and so it's been amazing to just go back to what's really true how we're really made what's really important

and dealing with people on a one-on-one basis, and I have seen people change. And then I'm obviously dismissed a lot, and there are people who revile me and whatever. But that's part of being a Christian. I didn't sign up for an easy life. I signed up for an extraordinary one. And I didn't sign up to live for myself.

I signed up to live for Jesus. And that really, you cannot change a world that you resemble. You cannot change a world that you resemble. And so I refuse to resemble this world. Let's talk about young people for a moment. We see so much enthusiasm. How do you know? I'm not young.

I think you both are. But when we have the March for Life, not just in Washington, D.C., but now all over the country, I think the thing that moves people the most is the number of young people who are out there advocating for pro-life values. Why do you think that we've seen such enthusiasm among a younger generation? Generation Z or even some millennials. Because they've dealt with their siblings who have died or their family members who have died or they're seeing the consequences of no one being home anymore.

I mean, we're saying we can do whatever we want, we can live however we want, but there's a consequence to each of those decisions. And they now are living those. And that changes you. It certainly does. It certainly does. How can people find more about your story

and the work that you're doing? Oh my gosh. So I'm not, I don't do speakers, bureaus and all that. Everything is through my website, jonagessim.com, G-I-A-N-N-A-N-A-J-E-S-S-E-N.com. And I'm on Facebook every day, writing away and doing my thing. But I am just all over living this unconventional, beautiful life with my whole heart and soul and loving it. It is great to talk to you. Thank you for being with The Daily Signal. One thing I have forgiven my biological mother for what she has done and have told her so.

And I think this is very important for people to hear. I am not a big shame festival. I am not about running around condemning people, but really telling them that the only person I have ever met to deliver them from the torture of having an abortion is Jesus. Thank you for sharing that with us. You appreciate it. It's great to be with you.

Have a good day. Do you have an opinion that you'd like to share? Leave us a voicemail at 202-608-6-8-6-7. or email us at Letters at DailySignal.com. Yours could be featured on the Daily Signal podcast. I'm very excited to announce that Megan and myself had a baby boy early this morning, a very healthy boy. Mother and baby are doing incredibly well. It's been the most amazing experience.

I can ever possibly imagine how any woman does. What they do is beyond comprehension, but we're both absolutely thrilled and so grateful to all the love and support for everybody out there, from everybody out there. It's been amazing. So we just wanted to share this with everybody. That was the newest dad in England. Prince Harry announcing the birth of his new son, Archie Harrison. That's the name Archie Harrison with the mother, Megan, recovering. Rachel, there are lots of royal watchers in this country, more than we can fathom.

It's true. I understand that you're not one of them, but you've got to have some take on the new royal baby. I don't, you know, as you mentioned, I don't watch them religiously, but I think whenever a baby is born, it's a very happy occasion. And something that I think we can contrast this with, and that is just equally is joyous news. Congressman Sean Duffy from the state of Wisconsin, his wife and himself announced, I think it was the same day or, you know, right after the birth of Archie, that he and his wife are expecting their ninth baby. And I think it's awesome, obviously, that we're celebrating this royal birth.

But I think this deserves just as much kudos and congratulations. And I loved what his wife, Rachel Compos, Duffy, posted on Instagram when they shared their announcement. She said, quote, Buckingham Palace isn't the only one with big baby news. We found out God isn't done with our family yet. Baby number nine coming this fall. Don't tell us we're crazy. We prefer a brave America full of hope for the future. So, I mean, to me, it's just as exciting as a real baby born in England as this very amazing family. The dad serves, you know, the country for the state of Wisconsin, welcoming their ninth baby later this year. So I was just excited about that, to be honest. It's a lot of kids. So do you think,

Terry and Megan will make it to nine? I doubt it, no. I strongly, I mean, families in England are pretty small. I feel like they're smaller even just for the regular folks than here in America. I mean, three or four isn't, I mean, I feel like it's pretty standard here in the U.S., and I feel like families there tend to be even smaller. Even friends who have visited overseas and had classes there or just visit on vacation, commented on how small families are there.

Yeah. Well, there's nothing like hearing from a. a new dad and new, new mother. So congratulations to the Royals and to the Duffies. We're going to leave it there for today. Thanks so much for listening to The Daily Signal podcast, brought to you from the Robert H. Bruce Radio Studio at the Heritage Foundation. Please be sure to subscribe on iTunes, Google Play, or SoundCloud.

And be sure to leave us a review or a rating on iTunes to give us any feedback. We'll see you again tomorrow. You've been listening to the Daily Signal podcast, executive produced by Kate Trinko and Daniel Davis. Sound design by Michael Gooden, Lauren Evans, and Thalia Ramprasad. For more information, visit DailySignal.com.