Catherine Wheeler

Address at the 2025 National March For Life Rally

delivered 24 January 2025, Washington, D.C.

[AUTHENTICITY CERTIFIED: Text version below transcribed directly from audio]

Have you ever looked back and thought “Well, I sure didn’t plan any of this for my life.” Yet, life has a way of getting you right exactly where you need to be. I never planned to be an OB/GYN. I never planned to be a mother.

But then in medical school, I had an unplanned pregnancy. The first thing I thought was, "My life and my career are over" -- because isn't that what they tell us women? But the first person I told said, “You’re going to be an amazing mother.” That's amazing. And more women need to hear that.

So, I immediately [audience cheers] -- yes -- I immediately fell in love with this little one; couldn't believe the love and the miracle of getting to grow a baby. 

My first rotation back after having my first child was OB. And there I was, in the room, watching my first birth and just falling apart weeping at the beautiful miracle of life. It became a passion for me. I was absolutely hooked. It was my greatest joy, right underneath having my children.

But then I went to residency, and in residency I was introduced to abortion, specifically for babies with special needs that we would have called "birth defects" and "anomalies." And we were told in that situation, it's a woman's right to choose. You're not here to judge. If you care about women this is one of the things that we do in medicine.

So, for the first time, we didn’t talk about the baby, or healing. We instead talked about terminating and ending. And for the first time, we completely disregarded, and, actually, intentionally took the life of, one of our patients.

That was the way I thought about abortion as I did them, that I was helping women, until one day -- and I can't tell you what happened [or] why -- but suddenly the blinders came off, and for the first time I actually saw the baby I was about to kill, with horror. And for the first time, I actually felt the evil presence in the room of what was behind abortion. Somehow I did that abortion. I don't know how. I never did another abortion in my life.

And it's been a long road to become a hundred percent pro-life [cheering] -- yes, thank you, God.

You know, my patients always told me the truth about abortion. They told me about how abortion harmed them, about their regret. They would cry to me about their abortions. But when I went to the literature as now somebody who believed in God and knew the horrors of abortion, I found that, tragically, they'd¹ been lying to me. And -- But my patients told me the truth.

I had somebody ask me on an airplane once, "How in the world, when you've done something that horrible, do you even get up?” And I'll tell you, I came to know Jesus, and I came to know His Love. [cheering] Thank you, God. I came to know His Love and Forgiveness. And so, only because of Jesus can I stand up in front of you today. And only because of Jesus can I tell people the dignity, the humanity, and the amazing miracle of babies, and that abortions not only take innocent lives but they harm women too and they harm all of us.

So, I am here today -- if -- if you've had an abortion, as an abortionist, I want you to know how sorry I am.

And I know that there are people listening who've participated in abortion in some way who don't yet know love and forgiveness, and that you don't have to carry this burden anymore. And to you I say, please contact me. I would love to talk with you [through] the American Association of Prolife ObGyns [see page bottom].

And this is why I march: Life is an incredible, beautiful miracle. And God’s Grace is available for every single one of us.

God bless you.

¹ The as prepared for delivery remarks use the following diction:  "much of the guidance from professional medical organizations was a distortion, and sometimes flat out lie." Even so, it is not possible to assess the objective truth value of this claim absent a better understanding the precise scope -- the literature, and/or, the professional medical organizations -- of Ms. Wheeler's experiences in this regard..

Original Text Source: Personal Communication

Page Updated: 2/2/25

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