Abortion Survivor Jim Kelly

From The Survivors

Unlike Sarah Smith and Gianna Jessen, Jim Kelly is largely unknown, even to the pro-life community. Although he is the oldest abortion survivor we are aware of, he has only told his story publicly once, to a pro-life rally on the steps of the state capitol in Sacramento, California. Like Sarah Smith, Jim Kelly is a surviving twin. His twin sister, Katherine Marie Kelly, was killed by his mother in a self-inflicted abortion ... in 1949.

Jim's mother is described as "troubled." She had eight children by five different men, only one of whom she ever married. Jim was 27 when he learned of the prenatal attempt on his life. The abortion had killed a female fetus, but had spared Jim.

He'd become a Christian several years earlier, and was working through the effects of growing up in an unhealthy family. Jim said that he was abused by one of her mother's live-in boyfriends, who broke Jim's ankle and burned his hands. Jim was placed in foster care and various instutions, where he suffered more abuse, including sexual abuse. But he still was struggling with feelings of anger, rejection, and loss. He was making progress in building healthy bonds with his siblings, but not with his mother until she was on her deathbed.

Does Jim Kelly ever wish that he had been spared his tumultuous and painful life, that he had also been aborted with his sister? Although he did try to commit suicide once as a teenager, while in an institution, he says he is glad to be alive. And, he adds, "Thank God there were no Planned Parenthood abortion clinics at the time I was born or I wouldn’t have survived; they would have finished the job."

According to Jim Kelly, his life is proof of the truism that God works in mysterious ways. "As negative as so many of my life experiences have been, I wouldn’t trade any of them now," he says. Those experiences have given him compassion and psychological insights that are invaluable to his vocation as a social worker. "I can build bridges, I can reach people who can’t be reached by your so-called ‘professionals,’ because I’ve been there, I know what they’re going through. And they can see that I’m not just relating something I read in a psychology textbook."