Ms. Mace, your FB post regarding the card sent to you and your colleagues by Representative Josiah Magnuson was brought to my attention. Personally and thankfully, I am so proud to have Josiah as my representative. On that card was this statement—”It is a twisted logic that would kill the unborn child for the misdeed of the parent.” This statement is actually a sentence lifted from my husband’s book with his permission, a book that I, a woman, typed and edited. I think you and your commentators take issue with the semantics of the statement and Josiah’s maleness.

First of all, let’s look at the semantics of this statement. In the book this sentence sits among other sentences describing rape as an assault, a crime, and a horrible, repulsive act in addition to “misdeed.” Of course, you didn’t have the privilege of having the book before you at the time, I don’t suppose, although every legislator should have received one last year if you were in office then. Nevertheless, “misdeed” was the chosen word here and is technically a correct use of the word, just maybe milder than your preference. Also, technically, the word “parent,” another word you take issue with, is what a court of law would call the rapist. Our preferred term is “sperm donor” because that is all he is—a “sperm donor”—not a father or a parent in the emotional use of these words. As for “who the victim” is—it is intuitively obvious to the discerning person who the victim is, and it’s not the rapist. Sorry I have to clarify this for you. It is also intuitively obvious to any discerning, right-thinking person that the words selected represented much stronger rhetoric.

This brings me to whether or not you are a discerning person. I don’t know. You seem confused by this postcard. If I were in your voting district, I would be concerned that you do not have the mental capacity to understand the statement on the card.

I submit to you that your problem is not the “poor wording” of this sentence, but that you just simply want abortion in cases of rape and incest, and that, as a woman, you take issue that Josiah, as a man, would press for the life of the baby created as a result of rape or incest. You proved this by adding the amendment to the pro-life “Heartbeat Bill” allowing for abortions of babies conceived in rape and incest.

Well, Nancy, as the mother of five daughters, it would, like you, hurt me to the core if one of my daughters was raped, but “the prospect of watching one of my children fade away” because she obtained an abortion to hopefully wash away the result of a rape would also cause me great grief. Research proves one never forgets that abortion. You need to read VICTIMS AND VICTORS: SPEAKING OUT ABOUT THEIR PREGNANCIES, ABORTIONS AND CHILDREN RESULTING FROM SEXUAL ASSAULT and FORBIDDEN GRIEF: THE UNSPOKEN PAIN OF ABORTION by David Reardon, Theresa Burke, et al. Here’s a pertinent quote:

“Many women who become pregnant through sexual assault do not believe in abortion, believing it would be a further act of violence perpetrated against their bodies and their children. Further, many believe that their children’s lives may have some intrinsic meaning or purpose which they do not yet understand. Their child was brought into their lives by a horrible, repulsive act. But perhaps God (or fate as some would say), will use the child for some greater purpose. Good can come from evil. The woman may also sense, at least at a subconscious level, that if she can get through the pregnancy, she will have conquered the rape. By giving birth, she can reclaim some of her lost self-esteem. Giving birth, especially when conception was not desired, is a totally selfless act, a generous act, a display of courage, strength, and honor. It is proof that she is better than the rapist. While he was selfish, she can be generous. While he destroyed, she can nurture.”

Nancy, if one of my daughters was raped, got pregnant, and birthed the baby, then I would not only come along side of her as our many friends would, but I would also applaud her for being courageous, strong, and generous. What a selfless act! Just ask those children who have been conceived as the result of rape and are now living life to the fullest how selfless it was. Just ask those parents who have adopted babies conceived in rape! Ask my friend Ashley Lawton. I dare you. As my husband would say, “I dee-double-dog dare you” to ask her and to read either of the above books.

As a woman, I also stand up and applaud the courageous men in my life, including Representative Josiah Magnuson, who are willing to take the heat from people hung up on rhetoric and emotions. I especially applaud my husband, Dr. Robert E. Jackson, Jr., for his willingness to get up every morning to provide for his family, to provide compassionate care for his patients, and to be a persistent voice for babies in the womb for 35 years because this is the BOTTOM LINE—what is in the womb is a baby, a living, oxygen-consuming person with its own personalized DNA.

Another mother and woman along with her daughters,

Carlotta Jackson
Rachel Olson
Rebecca Shrom
Miriam Schell
Hannah Miller (the designer of the postcard)
Carla Jackson