When Maria became pregnant shortly after arriving in the United States, she did not know how God would provide for her. The Lord used Catholics for Life ministry in Columbus, diocesan priest Father Antonio Carvalho and the Portuguese-speaking faithful to come to her aid.
Without knowing much English, Maria came to Ohio from Brazil with her 11-year-old son, Michael, leaving behind a 5-year-old daughter, Anna Sophia, with her parents. She wanted to escape a bad relationship and start over.
Being pregnant was not part of her plan.
Yet, after getting into another destructive relationship in the United States, she found herself in a Planned Parenthood parking lot on East Main Street in Columbus, about nine weeks pregnant, thinking abortion was her only option.
She was met by two men on the sidewalk there who were eager to talk with her. One was Gabriel Vance, who founded Catholics for Life several years ago.
The ministry arranges for faithful to pray outside of centers where abortions take place in Columbus each hour the facilities are open. It also provides information and resources for mothers, like Maria, in crisis pregnancy situations, connecting them with organizations and people who can help.
Vance and Maria met outside of Planned Parenthood in August 2024. They did not speak the same language, but both of them knew some Spanish and, using a translator, Vance offered to help her.
Maria’s then-boyfriend sold her car to pay a $250 non-refundable fee for an abortion. She scheduled a chemical abortion for the following Tuesday, which entails taking pills that starve and then expel the baby.
Vance and another Christian man on the sidewalk, Zebeeb, offered to buy Maria some food. The three went to a local Wendy’s and shared a meal.
“She was considering abortion because she was very sick and could not work,” Vance recalled. “She was behind on bills. She was kind of living in a house with several different people from Brazil.
“She said, ‘I know abortion is wrong. I know God does not want it. I know it’s a sin, but I just feel like I can’t do this.’”
Maria shared that there was not much food where she and her son were living. Vance suggested various food pantries, ministries and pregnancy centers that could help. He also offered to help financially.
Vance and Zebeeb prayed with Maria.
She shared that she was a lapsed Catholic from a Catholic family. She had not been to Mass for a while and had stopped practicing the faith.
Vance later drove Maria to her friends, who also spoke Portuguese and were watching her son Michael. Vance gave Maria his phone number. He recalled leaving the house, confident that she was choosing life for her baby.
“We were going to refund that (abortion) and get her connected with this maternity home,” he said.
“We had a couple of different people we know who spoke Spanish that have their own business that would probably be flexible with her, to have her work with them while she was struggling with the morning sickness. I was looking into all those things and getting all those details set to share with her.”
Days passed and Vance did not hear from Maria.
He became worried. By Monday evening, Vance knew the abortion was scheduled for the following morning.
As a last-ditch effort to make contact, he and his mother, Lorraine, drove to Maria’s friends’ house.
The family greeted the Vances. Only speaking Portuguese, they had their young son, who was learning English in school, translate for them.
Vance explained that they were eager to support Maria but worried she was going to have the abortion. The boy paused while translating to ask his parents a question: What is abortion?
“We sat there and watched the mom and dad explain what abortion was to this young boy,” Vance recalled. “He said, ‘Maria wants to do that? Maria wants to do that?’ You could just see the horror in his eyes of what this was, understanding the reality.”
The boy was determined to help Maria and her baby. He wanted to leave with the Vances and see Maria immediately.
“It was really beautiful, so powerful to witness this young boy – probably 12, 13 years old – who just couldn’t believe what abortion was and that somebody could do that, but then, when he heard that somebody was doing it, was so resolute in wanting to go help,” Vance said.
The friends called Maria and asked her to come over. She explained that she wasn’t feeling well, but she could talk on Friday.
Vance knew that, should Maria take the first abortion pill Tuesday morning, she would take the second set of pills 24-48 hours after. By Friday, the baby would be dead.
In an urgent plea, Maria’s friends convinced her to come to their home.
Vance contacted Father Carvalho, who speaks Portuguese and is connected to the Catholic Portuguese-speaking community in the Columbus diocese. Vance had reached out days earlier while working to help Maria, but Father Carvalho had a meeting that evening and was unable to make it.
The priest requested that Vance share the phone number with Maria’s friends, and he would be available tomorrow.
Maria, meanwhile, was dropped off at the friends’ home.
“She was completely different,” Vance recalled, “seemed even more depressed and despairing than even when I saw her outside the abortion facility for her consultation.”
The Vances gave her food, flowers, medicine for morning sickness and a gift card to reimburse the non-refundable abortion cost. They told Maria that they had confirmed a maternity home, job information and connections who could help get a car.
The Vances shared that they also made contact with a Portuguese-speaking priest connected to a community who, they were confident, could help.
“She was listening, but you could tell her mind was in another place. You could just see the despair in her, and I was so, so worried,” Vance said.
In the midst of the conversation, Vance recalled, they heard a knock at the door. To their surprise, Father Carvalho arrived, having canceled his meeting.
The priest sat down, introduced himself and began talking with the distressed mother.
“Seeing Father Antonio talk to and minister to Maria, I think it was the most Christ-like example I’ve ever seen in a priest,” Vance noted.
“I thought about Jesus at the well with the Samaritan woman, and that’s what it reminded me of. I feel like one of the disciples coming back, approaching and seeing Jesus just sitting at this well, ministering to this woman.
“I couldn’t understand anything they were saying, but I started to see Maria come to life again and start to seem more present and start to smile and start to laugh.”
Vance showed Maria a video of a nine-week-old baby in utero. “She was blown away by that,” he remembered.
Maria called over her son Michael. As he sat down next to her, she explained that she was going to have a baby.
On Tuesday morning, instead of going to her abortion appointment, Maria texted Father Carvalho. She said she was choosing life.
The priest connected her with the Catholic Portuguese-speaking community in the diocese.
They rallied around Maria: bringing her food, taking her shopping for clothes, driving her to her doctor’s appointments and bringing her to the Portuguese Mass.
Members in the Catholic Portuguese community paid off thousands of dollars in debt that she had owed. They acquired a car, secured Maria a new job and got her an apartment.
“That is what a church is supposed to be,” Vance reflected. “That’s what the Christian community is supposed to be.”
On March 17, Maria gave birth to a healthy baby boy. She named her son Marcos Antonio after the priest who helped save his life.
Father Carvalho went to meet baby Marcos after his birth. The Vances also went to see Maria and Marcos, bringing clothes and a gift.
“All Maria could say when we went there – all she could say was, ‘I am so happy. I am so, so happy,’ and she sincerely thanked us,” Vance recalled.
“This is the first time that I was able to meet and hold a baby that I played a role in – really, that God has led me to play a role in.”
On Saturday, Sept. 20, baby Marcos was baptized by Father Carvalho at his parish, Columbus Our Lady of Guadalupe, Star of the New Evangelization. Big brother Michael, who had not received the sacrament, was also baptized that day.
“What Father said was, ‘This is the real birth.’ He said, ‘Here we are for the real birth of little Marcos Antonio,’” Vance shared. “‘It’s his birth into new life in Christ, his birth into the Church.’”
Members of the Catholic Portuguese community served as the godparents. Vance, his wife Anna and their six children were invited to the baptism.
“Maria got to thank my wife and I both very sincerely,” he added. “With tears in her eyes, she said, ‘I’ll never forget that day (at the abortion clinic),’ which is not really a testament to us specifically but just is a testament to how much it can mean to a mother to have people there.”
At the baptism, the Vances were introduced to Maria’s new fiancé, Ryan. The couple met at the apartment that the Portuguese community rented for her.
The two began dating, and after Marcos’ birth, Ryan checked on her daily, helping with food and caring for her sons. Near the end of the summer, they were engaged.
They plan to settle in Brazil and reunite with Maria’s daughter, and Ryan plans to adopt her children.
“She never would have met him if she wouldn’t have gotten that apartment. She would have not gotten the apartment if she hadn’t been brought into this Catholic Portuguese community,” Vance reflected.
“When she made that choice for life, look how beautifully God has provided for her: brought her back to the Church, brought her children into the Church, provided for her needs and given her a fiancé and a father for her children.”
Last year, Catholics for Life ministry gave information that included available resources to hundreds of mothers outside of Columbus’ abortion clinics. Vance said 78 mothers turned down a scheduled abortion appointment or confirmed they were choosing life for their child.
Many go to a pregnancy center or contact an organization that can provide long-term help. Women such as Maria are quite rare.
“There are only five moms that we were able to help personally – and that’s not because we were turning mothers away – it was because those were the ones who stayed in contact with us,” Vance said of his ministry.
“When we have the opportunity to do that – to have to a baby shower for them, to give them gifts, to help them with their needs or a refund for their abortion appointment, whatever it is we’re able to do – we’re very grateful to be able to do that.”
To join Catholics for Life and support mothers in need outside of Columbus abortion facilities, visit www.CatholicsforLife.us/FacilityMinistry. Prayer times are listed on the website and times that volunteers could use additional help and a person to accompany them.
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