Today’s blog post is courtesy of Feminists for Life and our very own legislative director, Maria Gallagher. This month, Feminists for Life is publishing a series of pro-life conversion stories submitted by strong, pro-life women such as Maria.

Maria’s story begins with her ambitions in journalism and politics. Before becoming a pro-life advocate, she worked as a reporter for various online, broadcast, and print media outlets, including National Public Radio, CBS Radio, and AP Radio.

Here is her story:

When I was working as a general assignment reporter for a public radio station, if you would have told me that one day I’d serve as a pro-life lobbyist, I would have laughed.

After all, despite eleven years of Catholic education, my thinking had evolved on the issue of abortion. Having grown up in the post-Roe era, I could not imagine America without legal abortion. Without legalized abortion, wouldn’t desperate women simply self-abort? And though I never considered abortion to be a good thing, it seemed a necessary evil. And those self-described “pro-lifers”—why did they have to harass women outside abortion clinics? Weren’t they like the street preachers who screamed at passersby, proclaiming the name of Jesus while condemning all women in their path?

At one point, I imagined myself running for state representative and telling a roomful of reporters, “I am personally pro-life. I will pray every day for an end to abortion. But my political stand is pro-choice.”

But then a curious thing happened …

Read the conclusion of Maria’s story or check out more pro-life stories at Feminists for Life.