OVERLEA – When Ramona Trevino served as the manager of a Planned Parenthood facility in Sherman, Texas, she thought she was doing good.
“I thought I was helping women who were underinsured and in poverty, and I thought this was an alternative right – that this was a way they could receive healthcare that was affordable,” she said. “It became more evident as the years passed that it’s not what we were about.”
Several years ago, Trevino encountered a group of people who peacefully prayed for the conversion of hearts during a 40 Days for Life campaign in her home state. The international movement seeks to end abortion through prayer and fasting, community outreach and a peaceful all-day vigil in front of abortion businesses.
The public witness of those at the vigil had a profound effect on Trevino, who ultimately left her post and now is a national pro-life advocate for 40 Days for Life.
Trevino, who also returned to her Catholic faith, shared her story during five recent prayer vigils in Maryland sponsored by 40 Days for Life. The last of those stops had been scheduled for a vigil outside Whole Woman’s Health in Fullerton, but was moved to St. Michael Church in Overlea because of torrential rains March 2.
Trevino, director of outreach with the 40 Days for Life’s national team, said she realized that her work with Planned Parenthood – ostensibly directed at women – was often targeted at teenage girls, including one as young as 12, who came to the clinic for birth control.
“I know on the surface that doesn’t sound like such a big deal,” Trevino said, “but it is, because this is what’s perpetuating the issue of abortion. We give them a bag of birth control pills and send them out the door, so they continue this life of promiscuity. Ultimately what happens is that these girls are living irresponsibly, and when the birth control fails, they come back with their parents to seek advice.”
Trevino remembered that God was tugging at her heart when she was still employed at Planned Parenthood.
“I was driving around, flipping through the radio stations,” she said. “I know it was the work of the Holy Spirit, because I flipped over to the AM stations, and immediately our local Catholic radio network was on. I had no idea it even existed.”
She listened for a while as the guests on the radio spoke of abortion, contraception and abortifacients.
“I had been contracepting for many years,” she shared, “but I didn’t know that hormonal birth control could act as an abortifacient.”
Once she returned home, she checked the FDA insert from her own pills and discovered it there in black and white. She responded to God’s prodding and returned to confession for the first time in five years. Her parish priest counseled her to quit her job as soon as possible.
His advice coincided with the 40 Days for Life campaign that had been scheduled for her Planned Parenthood clinic. On day three of that campaign, she ultimately approached one woman and told her she needed prayer and didn’t want to work at Planned Parenthood anymore. The woman immediately responded with a prayer, but noted that she was not a scheduled volunteer for the event. She simply stopped by because she felt the need to pray – not at home, or a church, but at the clinic.
Trevino quit her job there shortly afterward and was soon employed by 40 Days for Life. She said the public witness of campaigns such as 40 Days for Life involve faith and trust.
“We’re out on the sidewalk, we are placing our trust and we are surrendering to Jesus because we have no idea of the impact we are making on those around us, those who work inside these facilities, the women who are going in,” she said. “We will never know the effect, and we’re not meant to know because we would be so tempted to glorify ourselves and not glorify God, who deserves all the glory.”
For more information on 40 Days for Life, click here.
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