After meeting someone like Kelly, hearing where she has been, what she has done, where she is now, and the lives that are changed because of her, the word miracle keeps coming to mind. Oxford Languages defines a miracle as, “a surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divine agency.” Her transformation does indeed defy statistics and the natural order of someone who has been in Kelly’s shoes.
Kelly learned to keep secrets from her parents in early childhood when a trusted adult groomed and molested her. After being raped at a party her freshman year of high school, she disclosed the assault to a youth leader whose response was, “If you hadn’t gone to the party, that would have never happened.” The response left her feeling ashamed, and further solidified the seal on her secret life. She rapidly went from honors student and nationally ranked athlete to pregnant teen, having her first of four abortions at age 15. She spent years in a haze of drug and alcohol abuse, domestic violence, sexual sin, and running drugs for the Puerto Rican mafia before seeking “stability” by working in the clinic where she’d had her own abortions.
Working in the abortion industry didn’t have the healing effect she thought it would. After nearly being killed in a domestic violence incident by her partner, Kelly was disillusioned and broken. She gave her life to Christ on the front pew of her father’s church, where he was the pastor. God healed her as she walked with Him for the next ten years, and He opened doors for her to work at a pregnancy resource center. Kelly loved serving vulnerable women but noticed that while most pro–life people were very comfortable and accepting when she discussed her past abortions, the same wasn’t true when she opened up about her experience working in the abortion industry.
“I found healing in so many areas, but I never found healing from my time at the clinic,” Kelly said. “I never felt safe to share about that. People would look at me with eyes of disapproval, so I kept it hidden. I just never talked about it.”
Kelly met others who had left their jobs in the abortion industry and found healing through And Then There Were None after listening to a panel of Quitters speak in 2020 at the March for Life. She was quickly welcomed into the fold of abortion industry Quitters and realized that there was a safe place for her to unpack the burden she’d been carrying from her time as an abortion worker. She attended her first healing retreat that year, which was small because of COVID.
“Because there were only a few of us on that retreat, it was extremely intimate,” Kelly said. “I was able to heal and forgive myself for what I’d done. I also heard from God that my calling was to focus on the women who had been harmed. I found that I have a voice and a place in this movement.”
Since that first retreat, Kelly has had the opportunity to plug in and find camaraderie with her tribe of fellow Quitters.
“There is something very unique about being in relationship with others who have gone through the same traumas and shared the same experiences as you,” Kelly said. “It is easy to communicate and connect on a deeper level. One thing about most of us Quitters, we are all a little raw, and a little rough around the edges. We are also soft–hearted deep down and we love big.”
Today, Kelly is the Outreach and Government Engagement Coordinator for And Then There Were None and ProLove Ministries. She travels the country to share the mission of the ministry at conferences and events. In addition, Kelly connects with legislators, testifies in legislative hearings, and coordinates the testimony of other former abortion industry workers for pro–life legislation all over the nation. In the first quarter of 2023 alone, she testified in 13 different states. Kelly has also become a sought-after event speaker for pregnancy resource centers, maternity homes, and state right-to-life groups.
“Testifying in legislative hearings allows me to be a voice for thousands of women who have come before me and thousands more who will be impacted by abortion if we don’t continue working to make abortion illegal,” Kelly says. “Laws that support life are essential to reshaping a healthy society, but there’s still more we can do outside the courtroom to make abortion unthinkable.”
In that respect, Kelly lives what she speaks. As a Virginia native, Kelly’s efforts and determination to serve locally got the attention of the Virginia Department of Health, and they started referring women to ProLove Ministries’ project, LoveLine, in droves. LoveLine is a 24/7 crisis line for families, single parents, and expectant parents, prioritizing abortion-vulnerable women. LoveLine triages clients and supports them with comprehensive case management to create individualized care plans that can change the trajectory of their lives. The influx of needs inspired Kelly to start a resource center at her church to serve LoveLine clients in Virginia. The church supportively allocated a space on their grounds for material assistance distribution in collaboration with pregnancy centers to help women and children in need.
Kelly also finds time to volunteer for Sidewalk Advocates for Life. As a post-abortive woman and a former clinic worker, she is in a unique position to provide valuable insight and training for the advocates who pray outside of abortion clinics to reach vulnerable women in crisis pregnancies as well as the clinic workers who might be seeking a way out of the abortion industry. She speaks on panels of former abortion workers for conferences, has spoken at the March for Life, and consults with Students for Life of America on college campuses.
While Kelly is a vital part of so many ministries, her family remains her top priority while balancing her work in the pro–life movement with being a mom to her six children, aged 15 and under, and wife to her husband of 16 years.
“My kids are so supportive of what I do,” she said. “I was nervous to tell them my full story, but after I did, they just supported me even more. They are vocally pro–life at school and with their friends. They travel with me as often as possible. I want them to be a part of what I do.”
Kelly’s work with And Then There Were None is important and fulfilling, but it is also heavy at times.
“I want people to know how hard everyone on the staff works,” she said. “This is not an easy ministry. It takes its toll. Everyone on staff genuinely and deeply loves the workers who are a part of our tribe. We love and pray for the ones who are not with us yet. This work is Kingdom work. We are people who love the Lord and His work to bring people into a family. It is hard. Sometimes it seems impossible. It is messy,” Kelly said. “That is what constructing the Kingdom of God looks like.”
Kelly’s transformation and commitment to serving others who are where she once was is nothing short of miraculous.
“God has shown me that all the ugliness has been redeemed. He has made it beautiful. He can do the same for anyone.”