WHEN, at age 35, Kathrine Weir discovered that she had been the product of rape who had only escaped being aborted because her mother’s pregnancy was too advanced, her world “shook”, only steadying enough for her to reverse her up-until-then pro-choice stance.

Today, the American woman who is in her 50s and married with children actively serves Pregnancy Resource Centre of Jamaica in Montego Bay, which seeks to “defend pre-born babies and holistically empower marginalised girls through prevention, intervention, and restoration services”.

“I was conceived in rape and I was adopted. At age 35 is when I learnt my story. She was in college and home for summer, got raped and didn’t know she was pregnant, went back to college, and her belly started growing,” Weir said of her mother’s experience at the Jamaica Observer Press Club last Friday.

“When the directors and professors found she was pregnant, they called the parents; the parents came and took her and tried to get me aborted. It couldn’t happen because the risk was too high for her so they sent her to a home. I was born there and I was left there,” she said wryly.

Weir, who is married to a Jamaican, said as she grew her curiosity about her parentage refused to wane — but she was prevented from discovering anymore as her birth records had been sealed as per state law at the time.

“I always wondered what my birth parents were like. You dreamed, ‘Oh, they are somebody important and special.’ I’d be searching in crowds and thinking, ‘Oh, that person kinda looks like me,’ ” she told the rapt audience of her fellow panellists, Observer reporters and editors.

When those laws changed, what she learnt in her pursuit of truth blindsided her temporarily.

“Some laws changed in [Washington] DC and I was able to get my birth records opened,” Weir said, adding that state officials then contacted her mother and gave her the option of meeting Weir, and she said yes.

“She lived in California, I lived in Virginia; I flew out and met her. There was a weird energy when I met her; I just couldn’t stop looking at her. I was looking at her ears, looking at her hands, and I think she was doing the same. She is a lovely lady; she was so scared,” Weir confided.

Unable to contain her curiosity about the circumstances of her birth and subsequent adoption, Weir said she quizzed her birth mother. Those answers were contained in a letter she carries until today.

“Here I learnt [I was a product of rape]. Oh my gosh! That was not one of the things I was dreaming about, never even entered my radar… she was just starting out her life and had great plans for her life,” Weir recalled.

“That was rough. I was successful, just living my life, always wondered what my birth parents were like… It was hard for her to meet me, I could tell,” she said.

Today Weir and her mother “have a relationship but it’s very distant”.

While that truth cut, she said the revelation opened up a heretofore untapped dimension.

“To find out you were conceived in rape, after not knowing, was definitely something that shook my world a little bit, until God opened my eyes. I actually was pro-choice up until that point; I didn’t know [I was almost aborted myself]. I wasn’t really seeking the Lord at that point. It was through my husband, who is Jamaican, that I really started seeking the Lord; and I was learning, and I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, and the truth just got exposed to me,’ ” she told the Jamaica Observer Press Club.

In that moment Weir metamorphosed.

“I always said growing up that, ‘If you make a mistake, that’s one thing, but if you are raped then, by golly! Yes, abort!’ And then God’s like, ‘Let me show you something,’ and I was like, ‘Whoa, I’m gonna retract that,’ ” she shared with conviction.

“It really opened my eyes to the truth; God does not make mistakes. Yes, it might be hard but we have to trust that God doesn’t make mistakes and that baby in your belly has a purpose. And maybe that’s the baby who is gonna cure cancer, who knows what that baby is going to do? But you have to give it a chance to live, and dream, and go into whatever God’s plan and purpose is,” she said emotively.

“If we are aborting babies then we are telling God that He is wrong,” Weir added, noting “It doesn’t matter how we are conceived, we all have a destiny and we all have a purpose. All of a sudden I’m in Jamaica helping the Pregnancy Resource Centre. I would not have [been here] until this walk that I have walked,” she stated.

According to health officials, 30 to 60 abortions are being done in Jamaica per day.

Weir is among several individuals and organisations in Jamaica now participating in the 40 Days for Life internationally coordinated campaign that aims to end abortion locally through prayer and fasting, community outreach, and a peaceful, all-day vigil in front of abortion businesses, over a 40-day period.

The campaign’s Jamaica chapter began on February 14 and is being championed by Love March Movement, led by Dr Daniel Thomas.