Jessica Hanna, Catholic mother who chose life amid cancer battle, dies
Jessica Hanna, a Catholic mother of four and pro-life advocate who chose to forgo cancer treatments for the sake of her unborn child, died on April 6, her family has announced.
Her husband, Lamar, shared the news of her passing on her Instagram account, where she went by the handle @blessed_by_cancer.
“At 8:02 p.m. on Saturday, April 6, my beautiful bride Jessica peacefully went to her eternal reward,” Lamar Hanna wrote. “She received extreme unction and the apostolic pardon from Father Canon Sharpe [on] Thursday. On Saturday she was very peaceful, and surrounded by her loving family, she breathed her last. The cancer was just too aggressive. She suffered joyfully and without fear in her last days. Please keep our family in your prayers.”
In 2022, Hanna joined “EWTN Pro-Life Weekly” to share her pro-life testimony. Two years before, while 14 weeks pregnant with her youngest son, Thomas, she received a breast cancer diagnosis. Several doctors advised her to have an abortion, but she declined.
After undergoing surgery, she was told the tumor was 13 centimeters, while cancer was also found in 43 lymph nodes in the area. Due to her pregnancy, doctors could not scan the rest of the body to see if the cancer had spread.
A devout Catholic, Hanna turned to her faith for support during the trial. She had a special devotion to Blessed Father Solanus Casey. During her battle with breast cancer while pregnant, she prayed at Casey’s Detroit-area tomb after each chemotherapy treatment.
