A mother diagnosed with cancer within weeks of finding out she was pregnant with her fourth child made a swift, steadfast decision: the baby’s life would come first, no matter what. Two years on, her story of faith, conviction, and survival speaks for itself.
Devout Catholic Jessica Hanna and her husband, Lamar Hanna, both 39, are pharmacists living in Detroit, Michigan. Jessica, of Lebanese heritage, and Lamar, who is Iraqi-Caribbean, were both born and raised in Ontario, Canada, and met studying pharmacy at Detroit’s Wayne State University. They always wanted a big family and are proud parents of four children under the age of 7: Christopher, Mary, Joseph, and Thomas.
“I have very traditional views,” Jessica told The Epoch Times. “You find that the happiest people were in a very traditional community. People mock these parents that have ten kids and say, ‘Oh, you’re crazy,’ or ‘Your life will be difficult,’ but these are the happiest people I know.”
Jessica gave birth to her third child in 2019. She hoped for a fourth child and became pregnant the following year. Then came her devastating cancer diagnosis, but abortion was never on her mind.
“There are no exceptions, life begins at conception,” she said. “You don’t solve one trauma by adding on a second trauma. Abortion is another trauma, it is not healing.”
‘We Are Not Terminating’
In Dec. 2020, Jessica, who was pregnant at the time, got a benign dimple in her breast retested. It was confirmed cancerous; she had invasive lobular carcinoma at 14 weeks pregnant. She braced herself for what her doctors would say.“I’ve always been pro-life, and of course I have my faith, so I knew I was going to hear ‘abortion’ at some point,” she said. “I always said to myself, at every appointment, ‘I’m not going to give them the option to abort my child.’”
Living in Canada at the time, Jessica spoke remotely with an oncologist in the United States who told her the tumor was likely “very small,” just one centimeter in diameter, and would need nothing more than a simple surgery. Jessica’s baby would be fine.
Yet during her first appointment with a Canadian surgeon, Jessica experienced her “first exposure to disrespect for the baby” and realized she faced an uphill battle; the surgeon wanted to operate as quickly as possible to avoid the legal requirement to resuscitate Jessica’s baby, should she go into labor during the procedure at more than 24 weeks gestation.
Jessica recalled her surgeon’s words: “Isn’t it better to have a dead baby than a baby in the NICU with complications, while you’re undergoing cancer treatment?”
Jessica recalled: “She said to me, ‘Sometimes the type of cancer you have is a lot larger than it appears on imaging. I’d like to do a full mastectomy on you, not a lumpectomy, and I‘ll get you in as soon as possible.’ I thought, okay, this one sounds like she’s respecting the life of the baby.”
Accompanied by her husband, Jessica made it across the border to the United States during COVID-related border closures, armed with Lamar’s Michigan property deeds and medical insurance papers. “I had to beg the border guard. It took about 10-15 minutes but he let us through,” she said.
Then visiting with another high-risk OBGYN the day before her surgery, Jessica was forced to field yet one more conversation about abortion.
“He walks in, doesn’t even look me in the eye, just sits down and says, ‘Before we say anything, just know you can terminate the child,’ without giving me any information,” Jessica said. “Little does he know, I’m a pharmacist. I already did my research ... he starts stumbling on his words as if he’s nervous.
‘I Was Ready to Fall on the Sword for My Baby’
On Jan. 8, 2021, Jessica’s tumor was removed. Upon waking from surgery, she claims “things turned wrong.” She overheard nurses talk about removing all of the lymph nodes under her arm, and knew the cancer had spread.The surgeon took Lamar into a private room to break difficult news: “You need to prepare yourself, because she is very likely stage four and terminal.”
Days later, pathology reports confirmed the worst. Jessica’s one-centimeter tumor was in fact 13 centimeters in diameter, and 43 out of 43 lymph nodes had tested positive for cancer.
Jessica was not told to abort her baby, but she was forewarned that if she didn’t terminate, doctors would not be able to perform the radiation scan needed to identify where the cancer had spread.
Jessica said: “They said, ‘If you don’t terminate, then we’re just going to do chemo, and pray, and hope for the best.’ But they told me chemo was not going to cure my cancer.
“My decision was, number one, we are not terminating our child ... I never even had to think about it. Second was, okay, do I do the chemotherapy or do I fall on the sword for my baby? I was ready to fall on the sword for my baby. But thank God I had my doctorate degree in pharmacy.”
A Walking Miracle
Jessica gave birth to her fourth child, Thomas, on May 30, 2021, after four rounds of chemotherapy. With the large family of her dreams made manifest, Jessica breezed through her cancer treatment.“I was so happy,” she recalled. “I’ve been quite well on chemotherapy, in fact so well that people were shocked to know I was on chemotherapy. I looked better than I'd ever looked in my life. I had energy, I felt great, I did not throw up once ... I attribute it to my diet, to my faith, and possibly to the pregnancy.”
Jessica was booked for 16 rounds of chemo, with the proviso that if doctors found cancer in her distant organs they would move to end-of-life care and targeted therapy. But all her post-natal scans, including a brain, spine, and chest MRI, came back clear.
“The doctors were dumbfounded,” Jessica said. “My oncologist said, ‘You’re extremely lucky,’ and called me a ‘walking miracle.’ My surgeon said, ‘I didn’t even expect you to be sitting in this chair.’”
Deemed “curable,” Jessica’s treatment plan changed to ten additional rounds of chemotherapy and 30 rounds of radiation. Today, she is one year in remission from cancer and prays daily to God to prevent the cancer’s return.
“How was I cured? By faith and faith alone,” Jessica said. “I was cured by God. I was cured by not murdering my child. I was given a miracle and a gift from God. The healing was a miraculous healing.
“I think anybody can do this because God, physiologically, He makes us so that our emotions are tied to our health. Had I murdered my baby and took him out, ripped him limb from limb from my womb before I treated my cancer, I would have been so depressed I don’t think I would have made it out of cancer.”
Trust in God
Championing her unborn baby through her cancer battle was not the first time Jessica found strength in faith. After she and Lamar married in 2014, Lamar was taken suddenly and seriously ill with an autoimmune reaction and airlifted to Victoria Hospital in London, Ontario. He spent 23 days in the ICU and eventually recovered, against the odds.Jessica leaned on prayer and sacraments.
“That’s what taught me I really needed to get back into my faith,” Jessica said. “When I was younger I was very, very close to God ... in my college years I kind of put that away, but never denounced my faith.
“The day [my husband] was finally discharged, I remember his doctor stopped me at the door and said, ‘Don’t have any children, because your husband’s going to relapse in a year. Because my faith was so strong at that point, we ended up indeed getting pregnant two months later and he’s never been sick again. We 100 percent attribute that to full and complete trust in God.”
Jessica said: “I have this very traditional sense of my husband as my guide. I submitted and allowed him to lead and guide me, the way the Bible tells us to, and every decision he made ended up providing for us tenfold ... without him, I don’t know if I would have survived cancer.”
A happy, faithful mom of four in remission, Jessica’s pro-life conviction is stronger than ever.
“I got my miracle because I lead with faith,” she said, “I lead with happiness, and I protected my health through my emotions.”
