By Emily Clark
TRUMBULL—When Ramona Trevino became pregnant at age 16, she never considered abortion. Instead, she chose life, married her 19-year-old boyfriend, and gave birth to a baby girl. The marriage, however, turned abusive and ended in divorce. Hoping to prevent young women from facing the same situation she did, Trevino began working at a Texas Planned Parenthood clinic, a job that weighed heavily on her for the three years she was employed.
“I was a very broken woman and needed healing,” Trevino told a group gathered at St. Theresa Church in Trumbull. “I never considered myself pro-abortion and because there were no abortions happening at that clinic, on some level, I thought it was OK.”
Days before the third annual Connecticut March for Life, Trevino visited the Bridgeport and New Haven spring campaigns for 40 Days for Life. During her talk in Trumbull on March 18, she shared the story of her conversion from the manager of a Planned Parenthood facility to the outreach director for 40 Days for Life, an international organization that works to end abortion through prayer, fasting, and community outreach.
Before she left the clinic 13 years ago, Trevino said she felt indifferent to what was occurring there.
“I thought I was helping these women,” she said, adding that she saw girls as young as 12 come in looking for birth control. “We were never on the side of life. It became clear that this is not about choice.”
As Trevino began to question her role there, God began leading her away from it. While driving home one night, she turned to Catholic radio.
“This planted a seed in my heart,” said Trevino, a baptized Catholic who spent years away from the Church. This prompted her return to Mass and Confession.
Learning more and more about the deceitful practices of her Planned Parenthood facility, she made the decision in the spring of 2011 to look for another job, feeling that employees at such clinics were actually harming, not helping, their young patients. During that Lenten season, volunteers from 40 Days for Life were holding prayer vigils outside her building. Trevino was drawn to them.
“I felt a nudge,” she said and approached a woman standing with the group. “I asked if she would pray that I could leave my job and find another.” Trevino soon learned that woman was not a volunteer but had just paused to pray there herself. “I knew that God had put her in my path.”
For 40 days, she felt their prayers and their grace, creating a sense of hope inside her.
“I was completely changed by this beautiful act of love,” Trevino admitted, “and asked God for forgiveness.”
Soon after this encounter, she left Planned Parenthood and took a job with 40 Days for Life, helping to organize vigils like the one that led to her conversion.
Barbara Grabowski, coordinator of the Bridgeport area campaign, calls 40 Days for Life a peaceful prayer vigil.
“It’s non-political, non-judgmental. We offer hope to moms-to-be and show them an alternative to abortion,” she said. “It’s all about a peaceful voice for the baby.”
After the talk at St. Theresa, attendees had the chance to meet representatives from the pro-life organizations Hope line, which offers free pregnancy resources to women, and Ruth’s House, a safe place for single mothers and their children.
Maura Janny of Easton attended the event and appreciated Trevino’s story about conversion.
“It teaches each of us to get out on the street and pray,” she said. “You can’t discount any little act of faith.”
Following the visit to Trumbull, Trevino spoke on March 19 in New Haven and Branford before heading to Hartford the next day as the keynote speaker for the Connecticut March for Life.
“Some at the March wonder, am I really making a difference with my sign?” she said, referencing the green and white Love Life – Choose Life signs. “Everything we do makes a difference. We are a public witness to countless stories we will never know.”
For information on 40 Days for Life, contact the Respect Life coordinator Maureen Ciardiello at (203) 416-1445 or visit www.40daysforlife.com.
