Tonight’s banquet went really well. The catered food was delicious and the crowd fit nicely in the dining hall wing. Our speaker was Mary Kate Zander who is the executive director for Illinois Right to Life. She drove all the way from Chicago, and then turned around and went back. I was tired just thinking about it but she also has a five-month old baby which makes total sense. You don’t want to be apart for too long.

I’m not normally much of a political activist type of person, and since I had never heard of this woman, I didn’t really have much excitement or expectation for her talk. But I ended up finding myself captivated by her in some way. Her confidence in standing up in front of people and talking, the way she said, “Can you all hear me okay?”, and when the man from the side of the room said no, she decided just to hold the mic, and proceeded to talk for long time, switching the mic back and forth with her hands.

I hadn’t any idea the stuff that was going on with “abortion tourism”, where women travel across states to access abortions in our state where it is legal. The numbers were staggering regarding how much government support is received by providers. I welled up when I heard the words “Project Love”, which provides grants to women experiencing crisis pregnancies, for things such as overdue rent or fixing their cars.