She wasn't supposed to live. She wasn't supposed to walk.
Jessen survived an abortion attempt when her 17-year-old biological mother was seven-and-a-half months pregnant. She was 2½ pounds, which is about the size of a large cabbage.
But she lived. And despite disabilities she traces back to the abortion, she's run two marathons. Now she plans to climb a mountain.
"I've had the most unusual life," she said.
Today, she travels the world telling the unusual story of her birth. She visits St. Cloud State University on Tuesday. Her circumstances and the evangelical Christian beliefs she accepted at age 4 have made her a passionate anti-abortion advocate.
Her visit is sponsored by SCSU for Life, but president Brody Hagemeier hopes that people look beyond the politics.
"This goes beyond the rhetoric of the pro-life, pro-choice arguments. ... This gives a human face to an issue that ... lacks that kind of compassionate, human touch," he said.
Jessen is rare: Significant medical advances and changes in abortion restrictions mean Jessen's story is very unlikely to be repeated today. (More on this at the end of the story.)
"This is a survivor telling a survivor's story — told with strength, clarity and courage," Hagemeier said. "I understand that not everyone who attends this event is pro-life. ... I think it's important because this adds one more aspect to the conversation. Gianna's story is unlike any other story."
She's been telling her life story to audiences since she was 14 years old. ("I wouldn't recommend it. I was way too young and I had terrible hair," she said, laughing.) She just turned 40 in early April.
"At 14, you don't really know who you are," she said. "I was just telling the truth as best as I could. Since then, I've traveled all over the world and met all kinds of different people."
Jessen has cerebral palsy, which she traces directly to the lack of oxygen to her brain during the failed abortion, she said. Besides mobility and balance issues, she attributes some cognitive problems to her disability.
"It's not easy," she said. "But I'll tell you, it's a lot more fun. ... I signed up for an extraordinary life. A lot of times we forget that so much wisdom can be gained through a struggle, not by eliminating them."
Despite difficulties with balance, she's set a new goal for herself: Train to climb a mountain.
"If I keep these astonishing goals in my head, I'm not preparing for defeat. I'm not preparing for wheelchairs. I'm not preparing to go downhill. That's so crucial in life," she said.
Gianna Jessen's birth certificate is shown. She survived an abortion attempt when her 17-year-old biological mother was 7 1/2 months pregnant. She speaks at St. Cloud State University on Tuesday, April 18. (Photo: Courtesy of Gianna Jessen)
"I always tell people, when I'm speaking to audiences. 'Can you get up and walk from there to there without thinking about it?' I wait for them to say yes," she said. "When they do, I say, 'Can you do me a favor? Can you stop complaining?' "
Recently, she's been going Italy frequently, participating in anti-abortion marches in Rome.
"I'm limping down the street in marches. And I'm limping because I survived an abortion and I wouldn't be disabled otherwise," she said. "I don't even have to say a lot. ... It gives people a lot to think about."
Despite spending the first years of her life mostly immobile, Jessen learned to walk with the help of a loving foster mother, Penny, who later became her adoptive grandmother and a very important influence in her life.
"She is largely responsible for who I am today," Jessen said. "I would have died had I lost Penny."
Forgiveness has played a major role in her life, including with her adoptive father, who had alcoholism. At one point, a woman came up to her after a speaking engagement and said, with no warning, "Hi, I'm your mother."
"I absolutely knew she wasn't lying," Jessen said. "I just said, I'm a Christian and I forgive you."
Her birth mother didn't like this answer, and eventually Jessen had to end the conversation. But it didn't really matter if her birth mother said she was sorry or accepted Jessen's forgiveness.
"The point was me offering it," she said.
For that reason, Hagemeier said, Jessen's story is meaningful to a larger audience.
"She has embraced all those struggles," Hagemeier said. "And she is incredibly thankful for the gift of her life."
Could this happen today?
Jessen was born a few years after the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision legalized abortion in the first trimester across the United States. The circumstances of her birth are very unlikely to be repeated. Today, abortions in the second and third trimesters are very rare. Nine in 10 of all abortions happen within the first eight weeks of pregnancy. Only about 1.3 percent of abortions are performed at 21 weeks or later, or about five months and later, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
Abortions after the second trimester don't happen in Minnesota, said Dr. Carol Ball, medical director for Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota. In very rare cases, it could occur if a fetus has an anomaly incompatible with life.
"Fortunately, medicine has advanced so much that we often know about maternal health risks and anomalies much earlier in pregnancy than we did decades ago," Ball said.
States have also limited late-term abortions, to varying degrees. Many, including Minnesota, ban abortion after a fetus reaches viability, the stage where a baby can survive outside the womb, which is increasingly earlier in a pregnancy thanks to medical developments. A 2015 study reported a significant increase in survival for even extremely premature infants, born at 23-27 weeks, as published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. After 32 weeks, or eight months, most babies survive with medical help, and a baby born at 30 weeks has a fairly good chance of survival.
Follow Stephanie Dickrell on Twitter @SctimesSteph, like her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/sctimessteph, call her at 255-8749 or find more stories at www.sctimes.com/sdickrell.
If you go ...
What: Gianna Jessen, tells her story of surviving an abortion attempt by her teen birth mother and dealing with the disabilities that resulted. Event is sponsored by SCSU for Life.When: 7 p.m., Tuesday.
Where: Ritsche Auditorium, St. Cloud State University.
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