Helene Lovera: My Story

Helene was scheduled to have an abortion on November 12, 1994 in Orlando, Florida. When she arrived, pro-lifers were standing peacefully on the sidewalk, praying for the lives of the children scheduled to be destroyed, and offering better choices than abortion for the women going in. One of the sidewalk counselors pleaded with Helene to let her baby live. But Helene went inside.

While in the waiting room, however, God's grace broke through to her. She saw the pro-lifers praying outside. She saw a priest there, too.

Helene describes what happened:

"I thought about the offer of help that the pro-lifers were making -and I finally asked myself, "What am I doing in here? I have to get out! I came out and went over to the pro-lifers
and accepted their offer of help. I felt so sorry for having even gone inside!"

The pro-life director of the Orlando diocese, Deborah Stafford Shearer, was present, as well as other pro-lifers who gave Helene the help she needed to get through her pregnancy -and in May of 1995 her baby girl was born. Helene gave her the name "Guadalupe." (Our Lady of Guadalupe is the patroness of the pre-born).

On August 6, 1995, Fr. Frank Pavone was in Orlando again and baptized baby Guadalupe before a full Sunday Mass congregation. "This is what we are about in the pro-life movement," he told the crowd as he brought Helene and Guadalupe forward. "We are about helping moms and their babies...note one or the other, but both." Helene has spoken before High School audiences and shares her story and what her baby would have to say to the pro-choice movement:

Hi! My name is Guadalupe, and you just read the story of how I was saved. I'm just starting to talk...and I'm going to have a lot to say to the "pro-choice movement" in the years to come!!