40 Days for Life national leader brings message of ‘the beginning of the end of abortion’ to Utah

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SALT LAKE CITY — Ramona Trevino, a 40 Days for Life outreach director and former Planned Parenthood facility manager, will share her story with local Catholics on April 8 at St. Ambrose Catholic Church.

Trevino, a lifelong resident of Trenton, Texas, was a clinic manager at a Planned Parenthood in Sherman, Texas for three years. After being approached by a former co-worker about applying for the Planned Parenthood position, “I justified my employment on the basis that abortions didn’t happen on site, but rather elsewhere,” Trevino said. “I ‘only’ referred women for abortion. I believed I was helping women, the underinsured and uninsured.  I knew nothing about the history of Planned Parenthood nor that they were/are responsible for the most abortions in the country. I suppose that on some level I believed I was working to prevent abortion.”

Although Trevino was a cradle Catholic, her family were “cultural Catholics” and she did not receive any of the sacraments after baptism, she said. However, a chance encounter with a Catholic radio program while flipping radio channels one day unexpectedly resonated with her. Shortly after, 40 Days for Life held a prayer vigil in front of her workplace for the first time.

“Three days into the campaign I walked out and asked one of the volunteers to pray for me, and it was those prayers that helped transform my heart,” Trevino said. “At the end of the campaign I resigned from Planned Parenthood, resulting in the clinic’s closure.”

 Trevino went to work for 40 Days for Life and has been the campaign’s outreach director for three years. She has also written Redeemed by Grace: A Catholic Woman’s Journey to Planned Parenthood and Back. At the April 8 event, she will share her testimony, “which is a message of faith, love and mercy,” she said.

It is important for Utah Catholics to stand against abortion and participate in 40 Days for Life, Trevino said. “One day we will all be held accountable for what we did and what we failed to do. … Approximately 3,000 babies are being killed by abortion every single day. As Catholics we cannot stand idly by while the greatest human injustice is happening every single day. When we stand before God and he asks us what we did to combat abortion we can answer: I stood as a witness to life, I prayed, and I fasted for an end to abortion. This is the mission of 40 Days for Life – end abortion where you live.”

Salt Lake City 40 Days for Life organizer Barbara Granja believes it is important for all Utah Catholics to hear Trevino’s message.

“By bringing Ramona here to Salt Lake City, I am hoping to inspire more people to pray for the end of abortion (in Utah, our country, in the world), be it in front of Planned Parenthood Metro, in their places of service, and/or with others in their homes,” Granja said.