Jacqueline McClain stood on the sidewalk with her pink sign and a smile as thousands of people walked by Friday at the March for Life in Washington, D.C.
The crowds were marching for children like her daughter: a baby conceived in rape and one whose life people often use to justify abortion.
McClain and others with Save the 1, a pro-life organization dedicated to awareness and support for mothers and babies conceived in rape, held pink signs at the March for Life to remind people that every child’s life is valuable. McClain’s sign read: “Mother from rape. I love my child.”
“Babies are babies, no matter how they’re conceived,” she said in an interview with Breitbart.
McClain said she was raped at age 19 by a serial rapist and conceived her daughter. Although the abuse devastated her and abortions were available, McClain chose to raise her daughter on her own.
“She was the life that I needed to move on,” she said. “I’m happy that I was not exploited by the abortion industry and told the lie that I could have a reset button. Her life made the difference for me.”
Instead of adding to her trauma, McClain said her daughter gave her hope.
“I was devastated, but my daughter gave me hope because she was life. It’s as simple as that,” she told Breitbart.
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Victims of rape often are used as examples by the pro-abortion movement. But McClain and many others want society to understand that unborn babies’ lives are no less valuable because of the crimes of their fathers.
A survey by the Elliot Institute that found between 50 percent and 80 percent of women who became pregnant by rape chose to carry their baby to term. Additionally, 80 percent of rape victims who had abortions later regretted their decision, the survey found. Some women said their abortion felt like a second “medical rape” and only added to their trauma.
One woman, “Kathleen,” told researchers: “I, having lived through rape, and also having raised a child ‘conceived in rape,’ feel personally assaulted and insulted every time I hear that abortion should be legal because of rape and incest. I feel that we’re being used by pro-abortionists to further the abortion issue, even though we’ve not been asked to tell our side of the story.”
