PERSON: Rebecca Kiessling

Attorney

Rebecca Kiessling (born July 22, 1969) is an American pro-life 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. She graduated from law school at age 23. During law school, she converted to Catholicism.

In the 1960s, Kiessling’s mother was raped at knifepoint and fell pregnant following the assault. 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. After she gave birth to Kiessling, Kiessling’s mother gave her daughter up for adoption.

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”.

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. In 2010, Kiessling severed ties to her adoptive parents, instead granting parental rights to her biological mother. On July 29, 2020, Kiessling announced that her two adopted sons, Caleb and Kyler, died at ages 20 and 18, respectively, from drug overdose.

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