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Jean Marie Davis, a pro-life activist and the director of a being pregnant heart in Vermont, has an surprising background story for somebody who does what she does.
Her journey to turning into pro-life began 10 years in the past, when she was 29 years outdated. At that point, she was pregnant, utilizing medication — and working from her pimps.
Trafficked throughout 33 states since she was simply two years outdated, Davis advised Fox News Digital in Washington, D.C. on Friday that by the point she was 29, she was “abortion-minded.”
She had already had one abortion on the insistence of her pimp.
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But when she escaped and got here into contact with a being pregnant heart in New Hampshire, the encounter would change her life.
“They allowed me to hear the heartbeat of my son. And when I did that, I looked at them and said, ‘Now what? How can you help me?’ And they shared Jesus with me,” she advised Fox News Digital on Jan. 19, 2024, on the 51st annual March for Life occasion within the nation’s capital.
Davis credit Phyllis Phelps, the lady on the New Hampshire heart who helped her as a pregnant 29-year-old, with saving her life — and the lifetime of her son.
Phelps ultimately inspired Davis to apply for the place of government director of Branches Pregnancy Resource Center in close by Brattleboro, Vermont. She assumed the function two years in the past.
At Branches, “we do so many programs,” stated Davis.
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“We simply carried out two new applications, which assist girls who are being trafficked proper now, [as well as one for] home violence,” she advised Fox News Digital.
“I actually teach that support class,” Davis stated.
Davis advised Fox News Digital that her work means she is “constantly helping” girls in want. That contains throughout a name that got here in at 5 a.m. that very morning from a girl who was requesting counseling.
“We also provide diapers, formula,” she stated. “We help women who just need a place to nurse their children, because a lot of them are homeless, or they live in low-income housing, and they don’t feel safe where they are.”
Branches Pregnancy Resource Center is “a place that they feel safe,” Davis stated.
Her group is “just there to help” girls who want it, she stated.
Operating a being pregnant useful resource heart in Vermont — a state wherein the proper to an abortion is within the state structure — comes with extra challenges. (In November 2022, voters accepted a proposal that “enshrines reproductive freedom in the Vermont constitution,” notes the Center for Reproductive Rights on its web site.)
SB37, a state regulation signed in May 2023, prohibits Davis’ heart and different pro-life being pregnant useful resource facilities from promoting their providers, amongst different issues.
“We’re always being labeled or looked at as [if] we’re pushing an agenda of forcing people to do something, and that is not true,” Davis advised Fox News Digital. “They think that we are trying to mislead people and [are] doing things that we don’t.”
Instead, she stated her group is “just there to help” girls who want it, each throughout and after their pregnancies. “Our motto is, ‘We do life with each other,'” she said.
Last July, Davis joined a federal lawsuit challenging SB37, something she says is “personal.”
“I was a client,” said David, meaning of a pregnancy center.
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“If it wasn’t for the pregnancy center, I’d be dead. And now the government in Vermont is trying to shut us down because they have this false narrative that we’re misleading, and giving out misleading information, which is so not true at all.”
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is representing the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates and two pregnancy care centers in the suit, according to its website.
“Women who become unexpectedly pregnant should be empowered with life-affirming options, emotional support and practical resources,” said Julia Payne, legal counsel for ADF, in a statement on the organization’s website.
“Vermont’s regulation, nonetheless, does the other — it impedes girls’s capacity to obtain essential providers throughout a tough time of their lives and suppresses the free-speech rights of faith-based pregnancy centers. Pregnancy centers should be free to serve women and offer the support they need without fear of unjust government punishment.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the Vermont governor’s workplace in addition to the legal professional basic’s workplace for remark, however didn’t instantly obtain a response.
Davis invited anybody from the Vermont authorities to “come in and look at one of our centers and see what we’re doing.” She stated they’re offering much-needed assist to girls who have been similar to her at one time.
“Pregnancy centers should be free to serve women and offer the support they need without fear of unjust government punishment.”
Davis shared her private life story in the course of the rally earlier than the March for Life in D.C.
Addressing the gang, Davis stated that when she was homeless, pregnant and utilizing medication, “I wanted to die, I wanted my son dead” — emotions that went away, she stated, after she contacted a being pregnant useful resource heart.
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The crowd roared as she shared her testimony of selecting life for her child and accepting Jesus.
“We are here to help, no matter what,” stated Davis. “We’re here for the babies! We’re here to save souls and save lives. God bless you!”
For extra Lifestyle articles, go to www.foxnews.com/way of life.
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