Lansing, MI (LifeNews.com) -- Gianna Jessen is a 28 year-old woman who is interested in real estate, singing and song writing. But she almost never have the chance to engage in those interests because her mother had an abortion. Somehow, despite spending 18 hours in a chemical solution intended to kill her, Jessen survived.

As Jessen turned to Christianity, she says she's found forgiveness for her mother and the ability to deal with Cerebral Palsy -- something she calls a gift.

"When you have the gift of cerebral palsy, you are destined to live an extraordinary life," Jessen told students at the University of Michigan during a talk.

Jessen is touring the world speaking out against abortion and trying to get people to see the humanity of the unborn child -- the person who is killed by the process.

"It is so much more comfortable not to talk about what it really is," she said, according to an article in the Michigan Times, the campus student newspaper.

Jessen says she's saddened by pro-abortion groups' attempts to either ignore her or belittle her message.

"If abortion is merely about women's rights, then what were mine? There wasn't those particular kind of feminist squawking about my rights, in fact, those types of feminists prefer I'd die," she said.

Jessen said that the abortion practitioner began the abortion process on her mother and left. Had he been present he would likely have finished the abortion and killed her. She said the need to protect people like her who survive failed abortion attempts speaks to the devaluing of life, the Times reported.