This past Saturday, former Fox & Friends Weekend co-anchor Kelly Wright talked with Mike Huckabee on his Fox News show about his mother’s decision to give birth to him despite having conceived him in rape. Kelly made the appearance to promote his new book, “America’s Hope in Troubled Times.”

In his new book, Wright describes how his mother was raped when she was 16 years old, and how he was the result of that rape. Calling the way he came into the world “very unique” Wright explained that in the summer of 1954 his mother had become close friends with the young wife of a pastor. One day, Wright’s mother went to her friend’s house to go shopping. However, her friend had already left, and when Wright’s mother entered the home of the pastor, he assaulted her.

Wright explained that there was nothing his mother could have done against the pastor because, “It would be her word against a reputable member of the community.”

“To make a long story short, she went ahead and continued to think that everything was okay, but then discovered she was pregnant.”

When Wright’s mother found out she was pregnant, she was offered an abortion as a means out. However, in 1954 abortions were still illegal, and Wright acknowledged that she would have been putting herself at great risk by undergoing one.

However, the primary reason Wright’s mother choose not to have him killed was her desire for children. Wright quotes his mother as having said, “This is God telling me that this may be the only biological child I have.” As it turns out, Wright’s mother was right, and Kelly would be her only biological child; Kelly’s sister was adopted.

Kelly Wright, in addition to being a correspondent for Fox News, is also now a pastor. He says, “It just shows how God was looking out for me and I had a purpose to live for.”

Mike Huckabee, a pastor himself, commented after Wright told his story, “For all of us who know you, that thought but by the grace of God and your mother having made another choice, you and I wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
“It’s the greatest affirmation for why it’s important to value every life as having worth and value. And you just have vividly demonstrated that to us.”

Kelly Wright has worked in journalism since entering the army in 1977. He has covered such stories as the Iraq war, the 2004 presidential elections, and the death of Terri Schiavo. In a profile for Fox News, Wright said the person who had the most influence in his life was his mother, June Lorraine Overton.