Sitting quietly one day in her bedroom and cradling her pregnant belly, Ramona Trevino recalled the distinct voice that spoke to her through her tears. 

“ I asked God: ‘What are you doing? What do you want from me?’ And He said, ‘Point people to me, point people to my Church.’ It was very overwhelming then and it even overwhelms me just to think about it now,” she said. 

What led Trevino, the current outreach director for 40 Days for Life National, to the moment that launched her career in pro-life activism is a miraculous testament to the growing pro-life movement and her own journey back to the faith.

In 2008, Trevino took a role as clinic manager for a Planned Parenthood clinic in her native Dallas/Fort Worth area of Texas. A cradle Catholic who was not active in her faith at the time, she pushed down her moral doubt about the foundation known as the number one perpetrator of abortion in her country. 

“One reason that I was interested in the position was that they did not perform abortions there, but were a large affiliate of two locations offering abortions where we were more of a referral centre. I justified my position by thinking we were similar to a gynecologist's office,” she said. 

Soon, however, she would become mentally frustrated with her clinics' operations. Leaving work one day, Trevino stumbled upon a Catholic radio station where an on-air host was speaking about  abortion and birth control. Combined with her growing aversion to Planned Parenthood’s values and her role within them, she began to look to God for answers on how to move forward. 

In February 2011, 40 Days for Life, an organization that hosts peaceful prayer vigils and fasting for the protection of the unborn, appeared outside of Trevino’s clinic. Three days into the vigil, she approached in desperation.

“ I went out and asked them to pray for me. I told them I was unhappy in my position, unhappy with Planned Parenthood and really at a crossroads and a crisis of faith. I didn’t know what to do any more,” Trevino said.

After extensive prayers and assistance from the organization, along with a growing desire to return to the faith, Trevino found herself in the pews during ​​ Divine Mercy Sunday where she says everything changed. 

“God spoke to me very clearly during the consecration of the Eucharist and He said: ‘Ramona, I forgive you, have faith in me.’ That was the moment when I realized God's message to me that Friday, May 6, 2011, I submitted my letter of resignation and I left without another job lined up and unsure of what my husband and I would do next.”

After sharing her testimony at a rally following the closure of her Planned Parenthood clinic, Trevino embarked on a new path extolling the pro-life cause through public speaking engagements. 

To her, while a sure victory for the pro-life movement, the journey marked her return to the Catholic Church — something she hopes her story is a testament to through her new line of work. 

“I have a very Catholic story and every detail of it involved my going to confession, praying the Rosary during Lent every day, stopping my usage of birth control, all of these graces came from the sacraments of returning to the Eucharist. There is no other explanation for how I heard God's voice speak to me so clearly during the Divine Mercy Sunday so many years ago,” Trevino said. 

This path has led to Trevino being invited to speak at this year’s Halton Alive’s Life Talks Conference, a yearly gathering that features speakers, breakout discussions, resources and networking opportunities for pro-lifers. 

The conference takes place at St. George’s Church in Burlington, Ont., March 29.

“We  launched Life Talks Conferences in 2019 because we wanted to be clear about our programs and when the public could attend something. We wanted to solidify our programming, roll them into one awesome day and do it big and do it better,” said  Elea Hofman,  executive director of Halton Alive. 

Hofman hopes the conference will continue to grow the pro-life space and open the public’s eyes to the services Halton Alive has been providing for over 50 years. 

It’s a sentiment shared by Trevino, who hopes her story will once again touch the hearts of those present the same way 40 Days for Life did for her so many years ago.

“ I am blessed to be able to convey the message of what happened with me and hopefully be able to shine a light on it and let the testimony speak for itself,” she said. 

“Hopefully, God will do the rest.”

Tickets to Halton Alive’s 2025 Life Talks Conference on March 29 are available to purchase online.