Rebecca Kiessling, a child born of rape, is taking part in a Malta Stand Up for Life candlelight march on Saturday, 3 December, 2016, at 5.30 p.m. in Valletta. The meeting place is in front of Castille from where participants will walk down Merchants Street, turn into St John Street (passing in front of St John’s Co-Cathedral) and up Republic Street, finishing in front of Parliament.

Ms Kiessling, who was adopted nearly from birth in Michigan, in the United States, learned when she was 18 that she was conceived out of a brutal rape at knife-point by a serial rapist. “Like most people, I’d never considered that abortion applied to my life but, once I received this information, all of a sudden I realised that not only does it apply to my life, but it has to do with my very existence,” she said.

“It was as if I could hear the echoes of all those people who, with the most sympathetic of tones, would say, “Well, except in cases of rape…” or who would rather fervently exclaim in disgust: “Especially in cases of rape!” All these people are out there who don‘t even know me, but are standing in judgment of my life, so quick to dismiss it just because of how I was conceived.

“I felt like I was now going to have to justify my own existence, that I would have to prove myself to the world that I shouldn’t have been aborted and that I was worthy of living. I also remember feeling like garbage because of people who would say that my life was like garbage – that I was disposable.”

Dr Miriam Sciberras, Chairman of Life Network Foundation Malta, said that the second edition of the Malta Stand Up for Life march is a continuation of the campaign by local pro-life groups to defend life from conception. “Malta’s stand up for life has never seemed more urgent and relevant as continuous attacks on the vulnerable come forth,” she said.

Ms Kiessling’s visit is being sponsored by Life Network Foundation Malta,