Category: News and Views
Hi,
I read the following and thought it was amazing. Please let me know what you think and if you want to read more, please visit www.voteyesforlife.com.
The Beginning of Life
Chosen, Not Forsaken: The Bill Connor Story
by
VoteYesForLife.com
on Wed 11 Oct 2006 01:24 AM CDT |
My name is Bill Connor. I have to speak out about abortion, because by the grace of God, here am I.
I live in Colton. I own Prairie Coach Trailways, a charter bus fleet company. I am a husband and a father and an entrepreneur. And I am a product of rape.
My mother started babysitting the children of a 55-year-old man when she was 10. He sexually assaulted her for five years, until she was 15. I was conceived
through that abuse.
Abortion wasn’t legal at that time. My mother’s attacker impregnated her with 3 other children as well. My grandfather was a devout Catholic. It’s because
of him that I’m alive. He supported my mother in giving birth to me.
We had nothing. My mother was a welfare mom. We lived with my grandfather for several years. But I did attend Catholic elementary school in St. Paul.
Eventually, my mother couldn’t care for us. I grew up in foster homes. The foster care system wasn’t as regulated back then, so some of the people I stayed
with were less than nurturing. I was bounced around a few times. Eventually, I lived with the Johnson family. They were good to me. I remember eating dinner
with them. They would put out a big plate of chicken. I could eat as many pieces as I wanted. I could even have a whole glass of milk. I didn’t know what
that was like. I wasn’t used to that kind of luxury.
When I was living with them my foster father encouraged me to play basketball. I became an All-State, All-Conference player. I had always been the kid on
the wrong side of the tracks. But now I was the cool kid.
I went on to tech school and eventually got a good banking job. When I was 40 my scrimping, saving and risk-taking paid off. My wife and I were able to
pursue the formation of our bus company. I was living my dream.
But six years ago, my son, Jaran, was diagnosed with brain cancer. We had to drive to Mayo Clinic for his treatment, a 4-hour drive. So we took our luxury
bus. It turned many arduous drives into fun trips.
While I sat in the waiting room during Jaran’s treatments I saw dozens of other cancer-stricken children. I wanted to do something for them. I wanted to
give them the same kind of experience that I gave Jaran. So I started a non-profit organization called Angel Bus. It gives terminally ill kids luxury bus
rides to treatment. Today there are a couple hundred Angel Buses in America. The rides we provide add a great dimension of excitement for the most critically
sick children with few other options.
Two years ago my son Jaran died. He was only 24. It was the hardest thing that I’ve ever gone through. Those of you who have lost a child can relate. But
throughout his illness Jaran insisted that it wasn’t brain cancer that was taking him. It was God calling him home.
Three weeks after Jaran died, I was diagnosed with leukemia. The doctors told me to get my life in order. At times I have been so ill that my physician
fears I won’t live through the hour. I’m 48 now. If I reach 50 it will be a miracle.
In the midst of my grieving and cancer-fighting, I started hearing about HB 1215 on the news. For obvious reasons, I’ve always been pro-life. God laid it
on my heart to call Dr. Allen Unruh, the husband of VoteYesForLife.com campaign manger, Leslee Unruh. I said: “Dr. Unruh, you and Leslee are getting beat
up in the news all the time. I just wanted to call and tell you that there’s somebody out here who supports you.” Dr. Unruh started telling me about Leslee’s
desire to create a mobile clinic for pregnant women. This “clinic on wheels” would provide free ultrasounds, counseling and education for rural South Dakota
women who were considering abortion. I just happened to have an Angel Bus for sale.
The rest is history. The Fleet for Little Feet bus will tour the state this year. I pray that it will save children conceived in less than idyllic situations
just like mine. Planned Parenthood’s philosophy is that everyone has to be born at the perfect time, to the perfect parents who have a perfect relationship,
who have the perfect family and the perfect job. But where is that world?
When Planned Parenthood says, “Rape and incest children should be aborted,” they’re talking about me. It’s like they think these innocent children will
be born with horns. But I can’t help the circumstance I was born into. Two wrongs never make a right. A woman should never be ridiculed for carrying a
child conceived through a sex crime. A lot of people think that we should only be responsible for the intentional consequences in our lives. But I know
that we’re also responsible for the unintentional consequences that come our way.
Sometimes children like myself ask the question, “Why me?” Sometimes I thought that God had forsaken me. But eventually I realized that I am here to witness
to other people. That’s how God is using me. I wasn’t forsaken at all. I was chosen.
I know that you will be inundated with commercials claiming that abortion should be legal for rape and incest cases. But when I see those ads I say to myself,
"They
want to kill me." I should have never been here nor my family. If there's any question in your mind on the value of giving dignity to human life - I urge
you to vote yes on six
this November.
My name is Bill Connor. I have to speak out about abortion, because by the grace of God, here am I.
Abortion is a right and has nothing to do with a manufactured god
That's a cool story. I also know of a book written about a girl who was supposed to have been aborted but lived even though the mom had tried to abort her. The Title is "Gianna: Aborted... and Lived to Tell About It." I know many people would think especially for incest and rape cases, that a woman should not have to deal with the emotional stress of having a baby resulting from that, and I used to think that too. But when I think about it recently, I don't think I could terminate a pregnancy even because of a rape. Aside from religious reasons, it would just feel wrong to me, and I'd honestly be thinking about it if I ever had other children, knowing that I had chosen to not have one and yet choosing to have others and wondering what the aborted child's life would have been like, what he/she could have become with his/her life. This part is a little off topic, but I even think that with my would-be older triplet brothers, who were lost thru an accident my mom had.
Hi Tinkerbell,
Thanks for the nice comments about the story. What you say is is very true.
aAs for abortion being a right, no one considers the rights of children when they discuss the topic. Does a child have the right to be protected from a brutal murder? If ppl did to dogs and cats what they do to humans when they perform abortions, there would be animal rights activists picketing daily throughout the nation.
Also, regarding rape and incest, the bill that will be voted on in our state has provisions that allow emergency measures like the "morning after" pil to be taken in cases of rape and incest, or for any other case, for taht matter.
I don't think I could do abortion after rape. When you think about it, it's especially sad to think about all the children that have been aborted and what they could have done in this world. Who knows; they could have found the cure for cancer or something of that nature.
Does the child have a right to be born and possibly be treated like a reminder of a terrible event, and suffer because of it, does the child have the right to be reminded constantly of how he came to be..No!
But the child would not have to be constantly reminded of where he/she came from if the mother or foster/adoptive parents didn't personally tell or remind him/her at an early age nor others whom it probably doesn't concern (like teachers or friends), that his/her mother was raped. There are many people who grow up in single-parent households or with a spepparent or who are adopted and are not traumatized by it. If the parent or parents love the child and don't treat them like they're different from their other children, for the most part I think they will be fine. Really, anyone can have a hard life reguardless of where they came from, even if they grew up with their own parents. Noone can ever really predict how easy or difficult someone else's life is going to be if they don't give that person a chance to live at all. Who knows? Maybe the child could have had a fairly good life with his/her adoptive parents (assuming the mother wasn't able to care for them), while a child whose life seemed perfect was having problems at home. Of course this is all just my opinion, but I think that if one wants to justify abortion just for the life others think the child may have, no person is ever going to have a completely happy/carefree life (even children who seem to have everything), and (in the case of not having one of both parents for whatever reason, or being adopted) it all depends on how the child is treated by the parents and family; and what and how they are told about why they don't have one or both parents.
Yes but this guy is happy for everyone to know his origins what is that doing to his self esteem and any children that he has will be affected by how he feels about himself.
In this case, the only counterceptives that should exist should be those that serve the purpose of eliminating any knowledge of the fact that people are brought into this world through rape. Not only is this a heartbreaking and troubling subject, but it is a subject for which great pains should be taken in order to eliminate it completely from human knowledge. I'd give the government the right to erase this subject from human thinking.
You are beyond belief why should the world not know...if we ignore the fact, we are condoning the crime, and that is unacceptable!
Then the only drastic measure that remains is to have the penises of the would-be rapists removed; that'll keep 'em from getting their groove on forcibly!
At last you talk sense I'd given up hope
I'm of the opinion that all bastardly rapists ought to be thrown on a deserted island where they can hump each other as hard and for as long as they'd like; shoot, they can do each other in for all I care. This world has no place for them, except for between the sole of my shoe and a big cake of canine dung. Here where I live no human beings wants them; they're run out of every community like the damned animals that they are; no mercy for the bastards! The pedophiles, teh undesirables, they all ought to be done away with, man. Or, I don't know, what do you think should be done with them? Do you think rehabilitation should be considered, or should the world just treat them like the scum that they are? Damned scum of the earth!
FINALLY, an interesting dialog going on, notes the Commentator Connie... Let us all stay tuned in to hear the continuing lively discussion, though depressing as anything this topic of sickening sociatial values of ill repute, this the current discussion that is taking place, of what ought to be done with these morons that rape and commit all hideous acts that bring forth tormenting. Those of us listening in might do well to consider long held views regarding the points that are being discussed and hmm perhaps modification is in order...just a thot.. now let us be quiet and fade once again into the shadows and simply listen...
In the event that there is irrefutable proof then the death penalty is the only answer, allowing the victims to go on with their lives and hopefully recover. Why pollute a beautiful pristine island with this filth.
Unfortunately, these neanderthals are still viewed as human by most numbskulls, so punishing them in a manner fitting their crime is probably never gonna happen. If it were up to me, though, I'd send them all off to Island Neanderthaly, if such a place existed, to be in submission to a tribe of sex-crazed primates. I have no mercy for bastards, male or female, who take advantage of defenseless victims in this way. They ought to be reduced to the lowest level of scum that they are. Fools try to argue that they're driven by anomalies, inner conflicts or whatever, and this sort of made up crap is what allows them to go scott free in the courts. Buncha nonsense! I wish I could preside as judge in each and every rape case to bring a sense of justice to the victims. Then perhaps a desperate scumbag planning to get his groove on forcefully will think twice. That's the problem, the punishment is too lenient! But you're right, filling an island with such filth would only contaminate the earth. Maybe their sex organs should be surgically removed or made obsolete in some way, that would make the problem cheaper and easier to get rid of.