Dear Rebecca...

Rebecca Kiessling, human being

On the Ides of March, Governor Mark Gordon signed into law HB 92 Abortion prohibition-supreme court decision. This was one of the most important pieces of legislation to be passed in years. Its importance lay in the fact that 45 of 60 representatives, 24 of 30 senators, and the sitting governor of Wyoming all acknowledged that Wyoming law should, by right, protect all human life from conception to natural death.

HB 92 recognizes unborn children as proper subjects of the law’s protection. In so doing, it also recognizes that current Wyoming abortion law has been hijacked by the Supreme Court. In 1973 seven men in black robes propounded a novel doctrine based on an arbitrary division of gestation into three trimesters. 

With this non-scientific and morally arbitrary doctrine, the Warren Court stripped protections from the youngest and the weakest—based precisely on their age and size. Up to that point, Wyoming had protected all members of the human race equally, while allowing for tragic circumstances when the life of the mother was threatened by pregnancy complications. 

Photo by Lennart Nilsson

Not only was Roe v. Wade bad law and bad medicine, it also violated the Tenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution by denying states the right to protect their own citizens through sound legislation. In Wyoming, Roe also violated our State Constitution. Wyoming’s entire governance is constituted upon the truth that “In their inherent right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, all members of the human race are equal” (Art. 1, Sec. 2). 

By these deliberately chosen words, the framers of Wyoming’s Constitution chose not to discriminate against any member of the human race—whether because of race, sex, religion, age, or any other accident of birth. So, when the Supreme Court mandated that Wyoming give less protection to some members of the human race, and more protection to others, this was in violation of our most basic value. 

Every legislator who voted to enact HB 92, the governor who signed it, and the countless Wyoming citizens who supported its passage with emails, phone calls, and personal visits, should all be commended. The passage of HB 92 truly exemplifies a constitutional republic at its best.

Around midnight after the signing, one email sounded a somber note: “It’s sad for my people group because of the targeted, lethal discrimination expressly contained within it.” The author was Rebecca Kiessling, President of “Save the 1.” 

According to its website, “Save The 1’s mission is to educate everyone on why all pre-born children should be protected by law and accepted by society, without exception and without compromise.” They fight what is commonly known as the “rape and incest exception.”

Rebecca and her birth mother, Joann

One week before Governor Gordon signed HB 92, senators Case (R-Lander) and Rothfuss (D-Laramie) jointly sponsored an amendment that denied protection to the unborn if “the pregnancy is the result of incest …or sexual assault.” The amendment squeaked through on a 15-14 vote.

Rebecca Kiessling was conceived during a violent assault by a serial rapist. Her mother was the sort of innocent victim that this amendment was intended to protect. But years later, after Rebecca came to know her birth mother, she became truly grateful that Michigan law had prevented her from aborting Rebecca.

Now, Rebecca is a mother of five, a successful attorney, and an internationally known speaker on human rights. She has a tendency to take it personally when people say she should be dead.

Her email haunted me. I could not push it out of my mind. While I woke up with a full day’s work ahead of me. I could not focus on any of it. I had to give her an answer.

So, I set aside my work and wrote: “Dear Rebecca, I can only imagine the sadness and injustice that you feel in your heart when you see fellow human beings devalue your life so callously. I can also imagine that the rage against injustice is not only felt towards those who worked to exempt you from law, but also against your friends and allies that did not fight hard enough to protect you.”

“I cannot blame you. I am certainly culpable for not doing enough on my part. Considering how many minds and hearts were changed by your brief appearance in the Capitol, imagine what we could have done if we had talked about this more openly for a period of months, not days. I am sorry. Please forgive me. And please don’t give up on us.”

Wyoming should be profoundly grateful for the accomplishment that is HB 92. It will make a difference for generations to come. But we should also recognize the legitimate needs of people like Rebecca, and never stop until every member of the human race is equally protected by Wyoming law.

Also published in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, March 18, 2022.