“What I want to do is really glorify God and also give you that shot in the arm that you need at this moment which is a shot in the arm for me to keep going,” Treviño, a spokesperson for 40 Days for Life, told the crowd at St. Alfred Parish Hall and online viewers via Livestream.
Treviño is the author of Redeemed by Grace: A Catholic Woman’s Journey from Planned Parenthood and Back. She related how it was a 40 Days for Life vigil outside her former workplace that helped her on her path of conversion and rejection of what she calls “the propaganda of choice, safe, legal and rare, my body my choice.”
Treviño said she experienced “the hands and feet of Christ on the sidewalk, pouring out their mercy and charity for me. What an act of mercy to pray for someone, especially someone like me,” Treviño said.
She approached the woman praying at the vigil and asked her to pray for her as she wanted to resign from her job.
“I am a true believer in the power of prayer today because of what I experienced,” Treviño said.
Treviño worked for three years as a manager at a Planned Parenthood abortion referral clinic which did not perform abortions but provided birth control and abortion referrals. Treviño said back then, she had rationalized that while she wouldn’t personally choose abortion, “it was OK for others” to do so.
“Like Pontius Pilate, I washed my hands of it,” she said.
What prompted her to reassess her work was when she spoke with 15- to 17-year-old girls who were her daughters’ ages.
“At home, I preached abstinence as a former teen mom,” she told the crowd.
At that time, she realized a discrepancy in her rationalization of “choice” and responsibility.
“At work, I was a different person. They were numbers. They were dollar signs. They were clients. They helped me to meet my quota,” she said.
“The truth is, every single woman, young woman, deserves better than Planned Parenthood. They definitely deserve better than abortion.”
She praises the work 40 Days for Life and the pro-life movement has done to save so many lives.
“More than 24,000 babies have been saved as a result of 40 Days for Life. One hundred and forty-eight clinics have closed because of 40 Days for Life. Two hundred and fifty-six workers left their job in the abortion industry,” she told the crowd.
Treviño sees a change in younger generations, an embrace of the pro-life message.
“I’m extremely impressed and extremely hopeful in the pro-life generation that’s coming after us because they are waking up to the truth, slowly but surely,” Treviño told The Register.
“It’s one person at a time who helps create that shift in the world and in the culture.”
Still, there are challenges, she said, as abortion is in legal limbo in Canada, with no law that criminalizes or restricts abortion.
Angela Braun, leader of the 40 Days for Life Niagara, who joined Treviño in a prayerful vigil outside of the Greater Niagara General Hospital before the talk, said Treviño’s witness is giving a “huge boost” to the local campaign.
“Ramona is a very inspiring witness to God’s mercy. God brought her from a place of darkness as a Planned Parenthood clinic manager, to the light of Christ, which leads her to promote life everyday,” said Braun.