I'm an adopted kid.
I came from an orphanage when I was nine months old and
I wouldn’t be here if someone hadn’t made that plan for me.
And so, this is just my way of saying thank you, and
offering that kind of assistance to other mothers
in need at that critical time in their life.
I went to school up in Minnesota
and right before I moved, I found out I was pregnant.
So, I decided to look into my options.
We’ve been blessed with two children through the gift of adoption:
Josephine and also Tino, who is nineteen months.
I think PROLIFE Across AMERICA has such an important work because,
in a very unassuming and very non-confrontational way,
they spread the truth and the beauty of life.
It was called PROLIFE MINNESOTA back in 1989.
We put up forty-two billboards, they were black and white.
And two weeks after the first billboard went up,
we got a call from a clinic director and she said,
“Mary Ann, a woman scheduled for an abortion
walked into our office today and said,
“I can’t continue to drive by that billboard on my way to work
and go through with this abortion.”
And she got the help that she needed.
So, from there, it escalated.
PROLIFE Across AMERICA has been broadcasting prolife messages
on billboards, radio ads and internet ads.
Each of our prolife messages features a fact about
about the development of the baby before birth,
as well as our 800 hotline for help.
Our ads aim to provide a connection to those in need.
So, if they call our hotline or send us an email requesting help,
we can provide them with a connection
to a prolife agency in their local area.
We’re able to connect those hotline callers with
free confidential counseling, pregnancy help,
adoption information, as well as post-abortion assistance.
When we were waiting for our children to be in our family,
we would be driving and we’d see a billboard and
it just made us smile and be hopeful
that someday we may have children in our family as well—
and so, it definitely impacted us, even before we had a family.
PROLIFE Across AMERICA is making an impact:
they truly have measurable results.
We have approximately fifty hotline calls a week;
people seeking more information.
And the fact that we now have donors, literally from all fifty states,
people that have heard and seen the message
and want to become part of this important work.
We hope to always be this beacon of hope
that will spread the truth, that will spread these facts.
We’re totally dependent on individual donors.
We hope to use what we can,
to reach as many people as possible.
It’s really an educational outreach to other people,
to their hearts, to their minds,
to get them to know about something
that they may not have thought about
in the turmoil of what’s going on in their personal lives.
And we know that we can offer them assistance, alternatives to abortion.
We definitely are very blessed that
the birth mothers of our children have chosen life.
Without that positive choice for life,
we wouldn’t be able to have children.
We really need to continually educate each new generation
about the intrinsic value of a new child—a new baby.
And that that work will never really end,
that we’ve got to keep that message out in front of people.
PROLIFE Across AMERICA was the saving grace in my situation.
It started with just a magnet on the refrigerator
that sparked that idea of, “Oh my gosh, there are resources”.
They led me to this amazing adoption agency,
and I’m just grateful that
in the end I chose life.
These are God’s babies and we have no right to do anything
but offer them love and assistance,
and as long as I’m breathing,
I’m going to keep on doing this.
