“I got an email from Thomas More Society stating that [SB 1909] had just been signed into law, and at first I was upset... and then I started thinking... this is our freedom of speech, and I don’t think they can take that away from me.”

“It was a little shocking, at first, to see we could be fined $50,000, but when I brought all that to our board to decide if we even wanted to join in the lawsuit—none of them were scared.”

“They were like, ‘Let’s do it!’ You know, we have to stand up for what we believe and this is a way we can do it.”

“It’s amazing when you can have a girl pause and have her slow down, to think about her decision and realize that she could carry to term and that she can have a baby and still reach her goals. That’s one of the most amazing things I love about this job, you can see lives changed! Through that, and sharing the Gospel of Christ with them... How Jesus can totally change their lives. That’s probably why I do this work.”  

“I got into pregnancy center ministry because my husband and I had been in youth ministry, and we had worked with several teens that had gotten pregnant out of wedlock. [During the time] we were at one of the churches my husband worked for, and we started a pregnancy center in that area. And, at the time, that community was second to Cook County, percentage-wise, for teen pregnancies.”

“My husband got transferred to another job, and when we moved back to the area, this position here at the center was open. I’ve always felt that God wanted me in pro-life ministry and to be working with girls facing unplanned pregnancies.”

“Our community is amazing, they support this center greatly. [We] never want for anything... we put [our needs] out there and the community supports the center.”

“We’ve seen lives changed. We have girls [and some guys] that come through here that thought they could never finish high school, much less college. We’ve got nurses, teachers, landscapers, and professional photographers that have come through [the center].”

“How can they make us say something that we don’t believe, when you look at our First Amendment rights? So, I was excited that the injunction happened and that we got to be a part of the lawsuit.”

“We were really excited to know that we could stand strong and make a difference—even where our governor and our attorney general are concerned.”

“If we all stand together and have a voice, we can have a victory. And when we got the victory against SB 1909, it gave me hope that we’re going to get a victory in other things in our state.”  

Tricia Blasdel
Executive Director, Relevant Pregnancy Options Center
Highland, Illinois

Learn more about Thomas More Society’s defeat of Illinois SB 1909 here.