Hard Cases, Exceptional Choices

Feminists for Life Names Remarkable Pro-Life Women^®

Who Made Exceptional Choices When Facing “Hard Cases”

Feminists for Life’s 2012 special issue of The American Feminist^® focuses on “Hard Cases, Exceptional Choices.” FFL President Serrin M. Foster answers the most controversial and important questions of our day: “What about rape (including statutory rape and incest), disability, and life of the mother?” Following the pro-woman answers to pro-choice questions in each section are firsthand accounts by a dozen women that Feminists for Life is recognizing as “Remarkable Pro-Life Women.^®“

“These Remarkable Pro-Life Women® faced life’s toughest questions without resorting to violence — even those who were victims of a violent act. Those who faced the worst news about their unborn children gave them every chance at life. And those who were born despite the odds passed their gift forward. Each of these women is remarkable in her own way,” says Foster.

Joyce McCauley-Benner, Heather Gemmen Wilson, and Analyn Megison all embraced nonviolence for themselves and their unborn children after they were raped and soon learned they were pregnant.
Rebecca Kiessling, conceived as a result of rape, assert the inherent value of every life.
Julia Schoch details her gratitude for her daughter’s birthmother, an uncommonly brave 13-year-old rape survivor.
Kristi Hofferber learned she was the only survivor of six children conceived in incest and mourns her missing siblings.
Angelica Talavera thanks her mother for daring to go against medical advice to continue her pregnancy — and passed it forward by founding a pregnancy resource center for the most vulnerable in her community.
Jeannie French refused to follow her physician’s pressure to abort after learning her daughter would be born without most of her brain and skull. Mary lived for only a few hours but saved the lives of two other children.
Tracy Haugen and Diane Simoni believed that their children given terminal diagnoses before birth were still human beings worthy of life, regardless of its brevity.
Lourdes Hnath proudly affirms that her life is better because of her son who was born with Down syndrome.

Two other stories are shared anonymously, including a woman who recalls her visit to Planned Parenthood for an abortion after being molested by her brother and an older friend.

The 36-page issue includes thought-provoking ads in English and Spanish, about children with special needs, and of a woman conceived in rape.

Editor Jewels Green, who had an abortion and worked in an abortion clinic before becoming pro-life says, “I am deeply moved by the heartbreaking, courageous, life-affirming stories shared by these brave women. They inspire me to even stronger dedication to creating a world where resources are available to pregnant mothers, all life is respected regardless of the circumstances surrounding conception, and abortion is unthinkable.”