Previous conference speakers have included:

Rebecca Kiessling – Keynote Speaker          
Rebecca Kiessling is a lawyer, adoptee and adoptive mother of 5 and delivers a powerful presentation of her own life story, "Conceived in Rape."

As a family law attorney, Rebecca litigated numerous high-profile (pro bono)cases, fighting for women's rights as well as the rights of unborn children. She has appeared on ABC's Good Morning America, CNN's Talk Back Live, CBS News, Canada's 100 Huntley Street and EWTN's Life on the Rock. Her story had been featured on the programme Extra, in Glamour Magazine and in Marie Claire Magazine. She is the "poster child" for Feminists for Life's poster "Did I Deserve the Death Penalty?," and the author of Heritage House '76's pamphlet, "Conceived in Rape: A Story of Hope."

Rebecca, a committed Christian, was adopted nearly from birth and at age 18, was devastated to learn that she was conceived out of brutal rape at knifepoint by a serial rapist. Nevertheless, she enjoyed a tearful reunion with her birth mother. A month later, Rebecca faced another emotional setback when told that had abortions been legal in Michigan at the time she was in her mother's womb, her birth mother would have aborted her.

Overcoming the pain of knowing that she was born as a result of a brutal rape, that she was once unwanted by her birth mother, and that many people who believe her conception made her life disposable, Rebecca Kiessling has devoted herself to fighting for the rights of the unborn and to raising her children to know their own value, identity and purpose.

As a speaker, Rebecca travels throughout North America, speaking over 75 times in 2007, for crisis pregnancy centre, right to life and adoption banquets, fundraisers, and rallies, Evangelical and Catholic churches, school assemblies, youth events, colleges, law schools, medical schools, attorney seminars, and women's conferences.

Rebecca and husband Bob have five children, some of whom are adopted. They tragically lost their beautiful adopted child, Cassie who was born in August 2000 with a very serious genetic disorder and died in their arms at just 33 days old. Each of their adopted children has a unique story and may be speaking to you someday!

Bryan Kemper
Bryan Kemper came to the pro-life movement through his work in the Christian music industry.  In 1993 he combined his experience and passion for music and his commitment to pro-life issues to found the organisation, Rock for Life.

Since then, Bryan has toured his home nation, the USA, and internationally to speak to audiences and raise awareness of why abortion is a denial of the right to life of the preborn child. Described as a ‘passionate and compelling orator’, a particular focus of his work has been encouraging pro-life activism among American’s youth and he has spoken at high schools and colleges across the USA, including Harvard and Princeton.

Bryan has also used the media to great effect to take the pro-life cause to the American public including in his own call-in cable show in Portland, Oregon.  He has featured on MTV, radio shows, newspapers, and magazines, a six-page layout in Swing Generation and has even appeared on the cover of the New York Times.

Bryan Kemper has spent years reaching out to youth and encouraging the young generations to get involved in the pro-life movement.  He now continues this work with his Stand True Ministries, an organisation that asks young people "Will you stand?" for pro-life issues.  His groundbreaking ideas for effective methods of peaceful pro-life activism are an inspiration indeed.  

Youth Defence
Youth Defence was founded by seven young people in 1992 in response to the ‘X’ case, when they saw a very real threat to Ireland’s pro-life laws. Since then it has grown to thousands of members, with branches being set up overseas, some as far a field as Australia.

Youth Defence is Ireland’s only pro-life organisation which is led and run by young people, and is primarily involved in direct action. Everyday Youth Defence members are involved in the defence of life, in many different ways: be it in innovative weekly street information sessions; maintaining a presence outside abortion referral clinics to counsel abortion-minded women; visiting schools to present the ‘Just the Facts’ programme; protesting and lobbying politicians and organisations who attempt to attack the right to life, or participating in debates and interviews, to name but a few.

Youth Defence also leads a third-level organisation, ‘Ultrasound’, which hosts tours bringing the truth about abortion to colleges and universities throughout Ireland. The organisation regularly runs visible and effective nationwide campaigns on the contentious issues of the day, most recently the ‘Lifeability’ campaign, which focused on discrimination against unborn children with disabilities, and the ‘Don’t Use Me for Spare Parts’ campaign, in response to the widespread push for embryo research and experimentation.

Dr Calum MacKellar
Calum MacKellar is the Director of Research at the Scottish Council on Human Bioethics which encourages the engagement of Scottish society in the field of medical ethics. Having worked with the Bioethics Division of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg he also has extensive experience of international bioethics.