Rebecca Kiessling | |
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 Kiessling in 2022 | |
| Born | July 22, 1969 Michigan, United States |
| Occupations |
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| Known for | Anti-abortion activism |
| Spouse | Robert Kiessling (m. 1998;c. divorced 2021) |
| Children | 6 |
| Website | rebeccakiessling |
Rebecca Kiessling (born July 22, 1969) [1] is an American anti-abortion activist and attorney. Her advocacy is focused on criminalizing abortion, including in the case of pregnancy from rape.
Kiessling was raised in Detroit by Larry and Gail Wasser, who raised her and her adopted brother in the Jewish faith. [2] She graduated from law school at age 23. [3] During law school, she converted to Catholicism.
In the 1960s, Kiessling's mother was raped at knifepoint and fell pregnant following the assault. [4] She then was advised by her rape counselor that she obtain an illegal abortion in back alley clinics since the elective procedure was illegal by Michigan law at that time, and consulting a legal physician would have been costly. However, she was deterred from obtaining an abortion due to the unsanitary area and practices there.[ citation needed ] After she gave birth to Kiessling, Kiessling's mother gave her daughter up for adoption. [5]
At age 19, Kiessling met with her birth mother, Joann, who had told her that her biological father was a serial rapist as well as "Caucasian and of large build". [6]
In March 2017, Kiessling spoke for the Irish anti-abortion group Youth Defence at the Citizens' Assembly, which was debating Ireland's constitutional ban on abortion. [7]
 | This section of a biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification .(December 2019) |
Kiessling supports the termination of rapists' parental rights, both taking cases as a pro-bono attorney and advocating for the passage of laws requiring judges to terminate custody if there is "clear and convincing evidence" of rape. In 2008, she represented a mother from Michigan who had been raped at the age of 12, and her rapist granted joint custody of the then 8-year-old child. [8] Upon reviewing the case, the judge rescinded his previous ruling granting convicted rapist Christopher Mirasolo joint custody, and furthermore pledged to take action to avoid a repeat of his controversial ruling. [9]
In 2019, Alabama passed a law requiring judges to end the parental rights of those convicted of first-degree rape, first-degree sodomy and incest. Kiessling argues conviction-based parental right termination leave some women vulnerable, due to the low percentage of rape reports and furthermore, convictions. At the time, Kiessling stated "We need to mandate judges in family-law matters to immediately suspend any legal or physical custody or parenting time if the court finds by clear and convincing evidence that the child was conceived in rape." [10] As of 2019, Minnesota is the only state to not have a law ending parental rights for those convicted of rape or incest.
Rebecca married Robert "Bob" Kiessling in 1998 and the couple had three biological daughters.[ citation needed ] They also adopted three other children, including two brothers who shared the same birth mother. An adopted daughter, Cassandra "Cassie" Grace, who was born with a fatal fetal diagnosis, died in 2000 when she was just over a month old. [11] [12] In 2020, Kiessling announced that her adopted sons, Caleb and Kyler, died that same year at ages 20 and 18, respectively from an accidental drug overdose. [13] Kiessling and her husband have since divorced. [1]
Initially raised in the Jewish faith, Kiessling converted to Christianity at age 23, following an invitation to attend Mass by a friend after suffering domestic abuse from a boyfriend with whom she attended law school. [2] [3]
In 2010, Kiessling severed ties to her adoptive parents, instead granting parental rights to her biological mother. [1]
Many jurisdictions have laws applying to minors and abortion. These parental involvement laws require that one or more parents consent or be informed before their minor daughter may legally have an abortion.
In family law, contact, visitation and access are synonym terms that denotes the time that a child spends with the noncustodial parent, according to an agreed or court specified parenting schedule. The visitation term is not used in a shared parenting arrangement where both parents have joint physical custody.
The timeline of women's legal rights (other than voting) represents formal changes and reforms regarding women's rights. The changes include actual law reforms, as well as other formal changes (e.g. reforms through new interpretations of laws by precedents). The right to vote is exempted from the timeline: for that right, see Timeline of women's suffrage. The timeline excludes ideological changes and events within feminism and antifeminism; for that, see Timeline of feminism.
This is a timeline of reproductive rights legislation, a chronological list of laws and legal decisions affecting human reproductive rights. Reproductive rights are a sub-set of human rights pertaining to issues of reproduction and reproductive health. These rights may include some or all of the following: the right to legal or safe abortion, the right to birth control, the right to access quality reproductive healthcare, and the right to education and access in order to make reproductive choices free from coercion, discrimination, and violence. Reproductive rights may also include the right to receive education about contraception and sexually transmitted infections, and freedom from coerced sterilization, abortion, and contraception, and protection from practices such as female genital mutilation (FGM).
Abortion in Namibia is restricted under the Abortion and Sterilisation Act of South Africa (1975), which Namibia inherited at the time of Independence from South Africa in March 1990. The act only allows for the termination of a pregnancy in cases of serious threat to the maternal or fetal health or when the pregnancy is a result of rape or incest. This law has not been updated since, and attempts to liberalise it have been met with fierce opposition from religious and women's groups.
The legality of abortion in the United States and the various restrictions imposed on the procedure vary significantly depending on the laws of each state or other jurisdiction. Some states prohibit abortion at all stages of pregnancy with few exceptions, others permit it up to a certain point in a woman's pregnancy, while others allow abortion throughout a woman's pregnancy. In states where abortion is legal, several classes of restrictions on the procedure may exist, such as parental consent or notification laws, requirements that patients be shown an ultrasound before obtaining an abortion, mandatory waiting periods, and counseling requirements.
Abortion in Zimbabwe is available under limited circumstances. Zimbabwe's current abortion law, the Termination of Pregnancy Act, was enacted by Rhodesia's white minority government in 1977. The law permits abortion if the pregnancy endangers the life of the woman or threatens to permanently impair her physical health, if the child may be born with serious physical or mental defects, or if the fetus was conceived as a result of rape or incest. Nevertheless, an estimated 70,000+ illegal abortions are performed in Zimbabwe each year.
Pregnancy is a potential result of rape. It has been studied in the context of war, particularly as a tool for genocide, as well as in other unrelated contexts, such as rape by a stranger, statutory rape, incest, and underage pregnancy. The current scientific consensus is that rape is at least as likely to lead to pregnancy as consensual sexual intercourse, with some studies suggesting rape may actually result in higher rates of pregnancy than consensual intercourse.
A six-week abortion ban, also called a "fetal heartbeat bill" by proponents, is a law in the United States which makes abortion illegal as early as six weeks gestational age, which is when proponents claim that a "fetal heartbeat" can be detected. Medical and reproductive health experts, including the American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, say that the reference to a fetal heartbeat is medically inaccurate and misleading because a conceptus is not called a fetus until eight weeks after fertilization, as well as that at four weeks after fertilization, the embryo has no heart, only a group of cells which will become a heart. Medical professionals advise that a true fetal heartbeat cannot be detected until around 17 to 20 weeks of gestation when the chambers of the heart have become sufficiently developed.
A marry-your-rapist law, marry-the-rapist law, or rape-marriage law is a rule of rape law in a jurisdiction under which a man who commits rape, sexual assault, statutory rape, abduction or other similar act is exonerated if he marries his female victim, or in some jurisdictions at least offers to marry her. The "marry-your-rapist" law is a legal way for the accused to avoid prosecution or punishment.
The Termination of Pregnancy Act is a law in Zimbabwe governing abortion. Enacted in 1977 by the Parliament of Rhodesia and effective starting 1 January 1978, it was retained after Zimbabwe's independence in 1980. The law expanded abortion access, permitting it under three circumstances: if the pregnancy endangers the life of the woman or threatens to permanently impair her physical health, if the child may be born with serious physical or mental defects, or if the fetus was conceived as a result of rape or incest.
Timeline of women's legal rights (other than voting) represents formal changes and reforms regarding women's rights. That includes actual law reforms as well as other formal changes, such as reforms through new interpretations of laws by precedents. The right to vote is exempted from the timeline: for that right, see Timeline of women's suffrage. The timeline also excludes ideological changes and events within feminism and antifeminism: for that, see Timeline of feminism.
The Human Life Protection Act, also known as House Bill 314 and the Alabama abortion ban, is an Alabama statute enacted on May 15, 2019, that imposes a near-total ban on abortion in the state. Set to go into effect in November 2019, a legal challenge against the bill delayed implementation until 2022. The bill was passed in both chambers of the Alabama Legislature in a party-line vote and signed by Republican governor Kay Ivey. Under the Human Life Protection Act, a doctor who performs a banned abortion in the state of Alabama is guilty of a Class A felony, and could be sentenced to life imprisonment. Several proposed amendments that would have allowed abortions in cases of rape and incest were rejected.
As of 2024, abortion is currently illegal in Indiana. It's only legal in cases involving fatal fetal abnormalities, to preserve the life and physical health of the mother, and in cases of rape or incest up to 10 weeks of pregnancy. Previously abortion in Indiana was legal up to 20 weeks; a near-total ban that was scheduled to take effect on August 1 was placed on hold due to further legal challenges, but is set to take place, after the Indiana Supreme Court denied an appeal by the ACLU, and once it certifies a previous ruling, that an abortion ban doesn't violate the state constitution. In the wake of the 2022 Dobbs Supreme Court ruling, abortion in Indiana remained legal despite Indiana lawmakers voting in favor of a near-total abortion ban on August 5, 2022. Governor Eric Holcomb signed this bill into law the same day. The new law became effective on September 15, 2022. But on September 22, 2022, Special Judge Kelsey B. Hanlon of the Monroe County Circuit Court granted a preliminary injunction against the enforcement of the ban. Her ruling allows the state's previous abortion law, which allows abortions up to 20 weeks after fertilization with exceptions for rape and incest, to remain in effect.
Abortion in Massachusetts is legal at all stages of pregnancy, although terminations after the 24th week can only be performed if a physician determines it to be medically necessary. Modern Massachusetts is considered to be one of the most pro-choice states in the country: a Pew Research poll finding that 74% of residents supported the right to an abortion in all or most cases, a higher percentage than any other state. Marches supporting abortion rights took place as part of the #StoptheBans movement in May 2019.
Abortion in Minnesota is legal at all stages of pregnancy. The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled the Minnesota Constitution conferred a right to an abortion in 1995 and the DFL-led Minnesota Legislature passed and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz signed into law a bill in 2023 to recognize a right to reproductive freedom and preventing local units of government from limiting that right, making Minnesota the first state in the nation in the post-Roe era to ensure residents have a legal right to an abortion.
Abortion in Mississippi is illegal. The new law took effect on July 7, 2022, after Mississippi State Attorney General Lynn Fitch certified on June 27, the Supreme Court decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization on June 24 of that year. State Attorney General Lynn Fitch's certification made Mississippi's 2007 'trigger law' go into effect and ban all abortions in the state, “except in the case where necessary for the preservation of the mother's life or where the pregnancy was caused by rape".
Abortion in Utah is legally performed under a temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of the state's trigger law, which bans abortion. According to HB136, which is effective state law from June 28, 2022, abortions are banned following 18 weeks of gestation. Abortion was banned following the Supreme Court case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization on June 24, 2022. Utah State Legislation enacted SB 174 in May 2020, which, upon the overturn of Roe v. Wade, made inducing an abortion a second-degree felony. The law includes exceptions for pregnancies "caused by rape or incest," pregnancies that put the mother's life at risk, or "if two doctors say the fetus has a lethal defect." Rape and incest exceptions will only be viable if the crimes were previously reported to law enforcement officials.
Abortion in West Virginia is illegal except in cases of rape, incest, fatal fetal abnormalities, and when the mother’s life is at risk from a pregnancy.
Abortion in New Hampshire is legal up to the 24th week of pregnancy as of January 1, 2022, when a new law went into effect. Prior to this, the gestational limit was unclear. Abortion was criminalized in the state by 1900. In June 2003, the state passed a parental notification law, repealing it four years later before passing a new one in 2011. New Hampshire then passed a law in 2012 which required minors to wait 48 hours after requesting an abortion but no longer required parental consent. New Hampshire law regarding abortion has been heard before the US Supreme Court in the case Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England in 2006. The number of abortion clinics in New Hampshire has declined over the years, with 18 in 1982, 16 in 1992 and four in 2014. In 2010, there were three publicly funded abortions in the state; all three were federally funded. There are both active abortion rights and anti-abortion rights activists in the state.
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