Jennifer Bowen is a leader in the pro-life movement in Iowa fighting for abortion and against assisted suicide and euthanasia. She is also a survivor of breast cancer and shares her story of how she fought for her life.
00:01:35.860Let's begin as we always do at the side of the cross.
00:01:39.500In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
00:01:46.320So, Jennifer, it's great you've spoken out to defend life, to stand against legislation on euthanasia, assisted suicide.
00:01:57.580Why don't you tell us, first of all, what you were doing?
00:01:59.340Well, for about 16 years, I worked with an organization called Iowa Rate to Life.
00:02:09.160And I went from being a volunteer until I got to the point of being their CEO.
00:02:14.560So, I kind of ran the gamut with what I did there.
00:02:17.200And what I was most involved with at the end was advocacy across the state, as well as working up at the legislature, fighting the battle for pro-life legislation.
00:02:31.600And it's hard to believe it, but at the time I was doing it, Iowa had, at one point, 29 Planned Parenthoods.
00:02:40.460And most of them were doing abortions.
00:02:43.680And through pro-life advocacy, through legislation, we are now down to nine Planned Parenthoods in the state, which is still a tremendous number.
00:02:54.520But we were able to see many, many closed and so many lives saved.
00:03:35.240Well, what happened was I went to the doctor in March of 2019 for a swollen arm.
00:03:45.460And what came out of that was the next couple of weeks, a lot of testing and biopsies and all sorts of things.
00:03:52.240And at the end of the day, what they determined was I was stage four metastatic breast cancer.
00:04:00.300And it had already permeated throughout my body.
00:04:05.640And I have to read it because I often forget where it is.
00:04:09.140By the time they found it, it was in my brain, my neck, my throat, my spine, both humerus bones, both femurs, my pelvic region, and most recently a lung.
00:04:21.280So by the time they found the cancer, we were in pretty dire straits when I met with the oncologist and the radiologist at the beginning.
00:05:21.980And they never gave me a sense of this is dire.
00:05:25.740I mean, I guess they gave me that sense.
00:05:27.960But they never gave me the sense that I was terminal.
00:05:30.880They were optimistic that they were going to battle this cancer.
00:05:34.820And we wouldn't necessarily see it go away, unfortunately, by the time it's stage four.
00:05:40.360Typically, you see treatable, manageable symptoms, but never the release of cancer, short of a miracle, which I still believe could happen.
00:05:55.540And so they just aggressively began to put me through all sorts of things.
00:05:59.940And my body responded, for the most part, well to it.
00:06:04.480And we've been doing that for over three years now.
00:06:08.320And now I'm on a chemotherapy at home.
00:06:13.460So I don't need to go in and do traditional chemotherapy.
00:06:16.920And radiation is complete at this point.
00:06:21.160And so right now, every time I've gone in for scans in the last year or so, I've been considered stable, which is the best scenario that I have in front of me.
00:06:44.440What laws exactly were you confronting?
00:06:46.660There was some laws that were coming forward in the state of Minnesota, where I submitted my testimony to a couple of laws related to assisted suicide.
00:06:57.820I know that Minnesota is one state where the testimony has gone forward.
00:07:28.460The first was, you know, at any point in my journey, I was literally six months from being considered terminal at any point in this battle.
00:07:38.860And to be in a battle where sometimes depression does come into play, I think that's probably just a natural part of being human.
00:07:48.920You know, thinking about things that you might lose, that sort of thing.
00:07:54.000But at any point, if assisted suicide is legal, I could ask for drugs to end my life, and that would be supported.
00:08:03.920I wouldn't have the support of, we're going to fight for your life.
00:08:07.720I would have the support of, certainly, here's your medication.
00:08:13.760Another was that you're stripping tools away from the doctors.
00:08:18.160When you say assisted suicide is an option, you kind of handcuff the physicians to doing their life-saving treatment.
00:08:28.320And then the third was, comes down to monetary, monetary reasons, which is, if insurance companies know that assisted suicide is legal, and we've seen this at least in Oregon,
00:08:43.340if it's legal, it's easier for the insurance company to say, you know, here are your medications to end your life.
00:08:51.520It's, we're not going to cover your care, but we will cover your end of life, your hospice, and all of that.
00:09:01.620And if we allow insurance companies to be making those decisions, I don't stand a chance in that world, because I'm a very costly consumer.
00:09:12.740I had great insurance the first two years and was very blessed that way.
00:09:16.580But if they had an opportunity to end my life in that way, I would hate for them to be the ones to make that decision.
00:09:26.540And those were the three arguments that I used.
00:09:32.240So one of the things that we rarely hear about is another aspect of this whole battle, and it involves a Christian concept of suffering.
00:09:43.560In the scriptures, we hear a lot about embracing your suffering for Christ or with Christ or offering it in union with Christ.
00:09:50.760The scriptures describe St. Paul with others having suffered at the hands of the Jews after they go to them and are judged.
00:09:58.700They're told, actually, they won't kill them.
00:10:00.220They just tell them you shouldn't do that anymore.
00:10:02.200And they scourge them, which is a horrible suffering.
00:10:04.880But nonetheless, as they leave, they're rejoicing, say the scriptures, for having been worthy to suffer for the name.
00:10:12.040In the scriptures, we also read that Jesus was perfected in suffering.
00:10:17.400He tells us, embrace your cross or take up your cross and follow me.
00:10:22.600The way of the cross, the way of suffering is an ordinary part of our lives.
00:10:29.620But the people who are called to suffer in a particular way are in a particular way more closely united to the sufferings of Christ because the sufferings of Christ were so extreme.
00:10:43.760I would love to hear your take on that.
00:10:46.660I think that it's been very eye-opening for me in this journey because I never really had thought about that a whole lot.
00:10:58.500My life was lived out in complete pro-life advocacy.
00:12:33.240And so it would be something beyond what I ever would have considered my journey.
00:12:42.060And so I've never really known any moments of, and I praise God for this, I've never really known any moments of whiny, how could this happen?
00:12:57.380And, you know, I've been, you know, I've been sad, and I've been worried about the future, about if I'll see my nieces and nephews grow up, those sorts of things.
00:13:07.880But it's brought me closer to him, because I've had only him, everything else has been stripped away.
00:13:19.800But I have to rely on him in new and unique ways for my life.
00:13:24.140Because without him, you know, I'm up against a battle of a monster.
00:13:31.540And it's just brought me closer to him, instead of further apart.
00:13:38.540And I'm so grateful that he has been ever present in the dark moments, in the middle of the night when I can't sleep.
00:13:49.260You know, the songs that you learned as a child, scripture verses that you learned as a child and as an adult, those come back to you as mercies.
00:13:58.860And without him, I don't know how you would go through stage four metastatic breast cancer without him.
00:14:08.540And he's kept you a warrior in the pro-life fight, nonetheless.
00:14:13.580And I guess many would say probably more powerful than you ever were before.
00:14:18.080That is something that I rejoice when I have opportunities.
00:14:22.160And even if it's just sharing something on social media, when I have the opportunities to do something like this, it just blesses me immensely.
00:14:32.480Because I feel like, yes, this is what I was created to do.
00:14:36.320And no weapon formed against me will prosper.