The Daily Signal - Nelly Roach: 'God Pulled Me Out' of Planned Parenthood

Episode Date: December 8, 2024

At age 18, Nelly Roach sat in a Planned Parenthood clinic with $246 to pay for an abortion.   “I found myself there, as many many people find themselves, in a place where they don't feel that they have any options,” Roach says.   Roach was born into a Catholic family on the small island nation of Palau in the Pacific Ocean. When she was 13, her family moved to Missouri so she could receive a better education. She says she was raised with a sense of cultural responsibility to help and serve her family and her people, known as Palauans.  Waiting in the Planned Parenthood, Roach recalls, her mind raced. She felt she had to have the abortion for “the great good” of being able to help fellow Palauans one day, but also that what she was about to do was “wrong, but maybe I don't care.”   When her name was called, Roach stood up. “Had I turned left ... I would have had an abortion in a matter of minutes. But, you know, God pulled me out, and so I turned right [and walked out], and my baby is now 32 years old.”   After giving birth to her son, Roach entered the field of marketing and eventually had her own marketing company. For 25 years, Roach kept her story of nearly aborting her son private. In fact, her mother was the only one who knew she had ever visited Planned Parenthood. But when her son was 23, she spoke at a marketing conference and was approached by a pro-life organization about how to reach more women who are considering having an abortion.   “I still believe that it was a divine conversation because it's such a polarizing topic. I wasn't talking about being pro-life, yet they felt comfortable coming to me,” Roach says.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Welcome to the Daily Signal podcast weekend edition. I'm Virginia Allen, your host today. Thank you so much for joining us. We'll be right back with today's conversation. Live from Indiana syndicated nationally from the Daily Signal, it's the Tony Kinnettcast. Man, you've got me hooklight and seeker. Now I want to tune into your program. Interviews from the border. Coverage from inside leftist riots.

Exposing those targeting children from the guy leaving liberal journalist speechless. It's the Tony Kinnettcast. Join us live on the Daily Signals, YouTube and X stream every weeknight at 7 p.m. Eastern or anywhere you get your podcasts. Well, it is my privilege today to be sitting down with Nellie Roach. She serves as the founder and president of Choose Life Marketing. And Nellie, you have such a powerful story of what took you in to this business, of working around promoting pro-life organizations and being in that field of pro-life marketing. So I'd love to start with your story.

Did you grow up in a pro-life home? I did. I actually grew up in a very Catholic home. and we you know Christ was instilled in our hearts very very early on so yeah I mean the the they my story was not is not without um it's not without religion it actually is it started in a home that was full of God and and it would and Jesus and it was it was a wonderful childhood actually yeah that's beautiful really powerful. And it was 18. You were 18 correct when you learned that you were pregnant.

So yes. So I was born on a very tiny island just about, it's in the Pacific Ocean. And although 98% of our island is Catholic to this day. It's a very pro-life country. And then my family, our clan, said, you know, we want a better life for our people. So basically we moved to the United States so that I could have better education. In our world or in our traditions, in our culture, we were just really raised to go back and help our people. That was just a big responsibility that anyone that left the island could come back and improve the island. So I find myself right in smack in the middle of the great United States in Missouri and also found myself pregnant at age actually 17. And, you know, I gave birth to my son when I was 18, but definitely 17 pregnant and scared and found myself in an abortion clinic, a planned periodhood here in town.

And I found myself there as many, many times. people find themselves in a place where they don't feel that they have any options. And it just, for me, it wasn't about being pro-life or pro-abortion. It was more a lot of shame that was associated with it. So a lot of the, just the angst and what am I going to do? I have to help my family. What am I going to do? I, you know, I'm just going into college. And so I really did have the support system and the support mechanism, but I didn't feel like I did. So many women go through that. Because you're all living in your head and you're figuring out that, hey, you're alone.

And so I sat in that abortion clinic seat. And as we, as they called up my name, I was having all of these emotions of, oh, my goodness, this is, this is wrong, but maybe I don't care. I need to do this for the greater good. And I'm just, you know, I'm so ashamed and I can't, you know, I can't raise a baby with all of the responsibilities that I, that I had. And I stood up and had I turned left, I would have gone to, I would have had an abortion in a matter of minutes. But, you know, God pulled me out. And so I turned right and my baby is now 32 years old. And so, you know, in reflection,

I started to think about how, you know, how all of these women feel like they don't have any choices and they don't have any help. Yeah. But for a very, very long time, I sort of compartmentalized everything that went on inside me and said, okay, I'm going to take a deep breath and I'm just going to, I'm just going to do this, you know. I'm just going to handle it. I'm just going to handle it. I'm going to put my hair up in a button. I'm just going to go for it. I'm going to handle this.

And so I, for me, it was a time for me to just take the responsibility. And so I did that. Little did I know that God's plan for me was so much bigger than my little mind could ever imagine. I did go home and I told my mother, she didn't love it so much. And, you know, and then I told my grandmother who then said, why the tears? Oh.

She said, the babies are a beautiful thing. She said, and it's God's timing. And so we'll do this and we'll do this together. And so I, yes, it was hard. but my goodness it was so well worth it and so many women say that so many women say that and so here here we are you know fast forward my life and um i'm working in marketing um and i'm just doing my own thing but so completely empty um just thinking okay well obviously this is the career for me, but what am I doing?

How am I fulfilling my life? Hmm. So I was actually at a conference where I was speaking about digital marketing and a pro-life organization actually approached me. And I still believe that it was a divine conversation because it's such a polarizing topic I wasn't talking about being pro-life, yet they felt comfortable coming to me and saying,

hey. Oh, interesting. So I really think that you could help us. So it was, I mean, I just really believe that obedience was always in front of me, and God met me in that place. And utilize everyone to come to that place where I had to look, obedience. straight in the face and say, wow. And it, you know, the meeting that I had shortly after that meeting that I had with the

Pro-Life organization, as I was standing up and leaving, we had a really great new business meeting. And I thought, okay, this is good. I could, this is my, you know, I was meant to be sitting here and he looked at me and he said, but Nellie, what's your story? And at that moment, at that moment, there was just, there was just so clear that I had been playing the character of Jonah all over the years. Even after choosing life, you still felt like there was kind of almost like a turning away from who you were, from who God had made you to be. Yes, yes.

You know, in reflection, I start to think about how God pursued me in all of those areas of my life. When it was hard, I just bled my teeth and just kept going. And now I look back and I think about how I was so busy, but my little three-year-old wanted to go to church. And I said, well, okay, I mean, how do you say no to that? You know? And so he brought me back to Christ. And this little baby that was inside me that could have been demised actually brought me back to Christ. And you just go through life.

And then you, at some point in that moment, when he asked, me what my story was, it was like this rush of just, and you went through this and you went through this and here I was and I was with you. And so it was an incredibly powerful meaning. Those are such marking moments in our lives that we look back on. And I think when you realize the significance of your story and that it wasn't by accident that there was divine appointments and that God was working the whole time and you can see that thread. And in those moments, it's like, oh, okay, I am walking on a track that, for one, the Lord knew and I'm here at a place now that is intentional and that the Lord has a plan. So you're sitting in this conference. You have this

conversation. This gentleman says, hey, we're trying to do work around marketing as it relates to the pro-life movement and you're already working in the field of marketing. So then how does this concept for choose life marketing get worse from that? So as I was, you know, I was in that meeting that as you had indicated, a divine appointment. And I was telling my story. And it was not cohesive because I had not said it out loud. That was the first. time that I said it out loud and I could actually hear it. And how many years was that from the time you chose life to telling that story for the first time in public? It was 25 years. Wow. So you kept that for 25 years, the fact that you had almost aborted your son. Only family members.

Yes. Knew? Only family members. Only my mother and my, but my grandmother never knew. I couldn't tell her. but my mother knew. And so that she was the only one and she kept it. And by the way, my mother was one of the best grandmothers ever. Even though she was not happy with me, the birth of her first grandchild was an amazing experience for her. But yes, I mean, I like, you know, to, at that moment, I walked away thinking, I have to repent that I have been pursued and I have ignored it.

And I have ran away from it. And so I did. And the first order of, you know, after getting on my knees and just praying and going in, I had to tell my son. And that was, I'm telling you, like, that was the hardest thing. And as I'm explaining this to him, again, not coherent or cohesive, just kind of, I had not heard myself talk about it. He sat there and I said, what do you think? you know and he was 23 years old

I said what do you think and he said I think I I feel like I need to give back and I also and then he just kind of stopped and he looked at me and he said thank you mom for choosing life yeah so we were both just speechless

and I asked him for his forgiveness. I said, I have asked God for forgiveness for so many years. And he said, and I think he's forgiven you. I forgive you. And so I said, I'm so sorry. And he said, Mom, I'm just so thankful that you chose life for me. Thank you for choosing life. And so I already had a marketing company.

It was doing very well. And we were really, we were doing work all over the state. And I was so, like I said, it was just, it was wild. We were very successful. And I called in my team. And I said, after having the discussion with my son, and I had prayed over this, even called at the first person who had asked me in that, you know, in that conference room, what is your story?

What's your story? I had been praying and we get into this conference room and I said, I want to open a division called Choose Life Marketing. And they both just looked at me and said, we're so confused. What problem are we trying to solve? And so two and a half hours later, we were all in agreement that we needed to do something that. that in response to all of the things that had happened, and that we had a responsibility. So we did.

I mean, we opened up Choose Life Marketing. It is a healing mechanism for me. It allows me to give back to God everything that he has given to me. And then some, I, you know, we were just this little piece of, of, you know, of stories of like this universe that he has created. And every day I feel so completely humbled. So I walked away from there, started doing a lot of research on the pro-life movement in terms of marketing. And I realized that one of the things that was, that was a gap was when you go to a marketing company, like a local marketing company,

you don't know who's going to be accepting of your beliefs. And so it was very difficult for them to get everything that they needed to get to get done and be able to outpour their hearts on what needs to happen and what their belief system was in fear of being judged. Yeah. Because it's such a polarizing. So what we did was, yep. So what we did was we just, we created a marketing company. that is 100% pro-life. Everyone in our agency has been vetted to be 100% pro-life. So that we understand

the nuances, we understand the culture, what we're up against, and we also understand the ramifications of not performing with excellence. And so it has been a great journey. So yeah, we are a full-service marketing agency. We have presence across the nation. And also we have clients in Thailand, Taiwan, and several other countries that had reached out to us and said, hey, I think we need help in these areas as well. Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, it's just one step at a time in, God's will and an obedience towards the life that he created for me. And who are the clients that you all are serving? Are you specifically doing marketing for pro-life centers or for any organization that also

just maybe happens to at the end of the day have pro-life leadership or be somehow connected with the pro-life movement? So very good question. And we serve hundreds of pregnancy resource centers across the United States. And so we do marketing to reach more abortion-minded women. Our tagline is reach her. So we help the frontline workers of our movement, which are the PRCs, make sure that they can reach her first so that she can,

sit in a pregnancy resource center lobby and not at an abortion clinic lobby like I did. Yeah. So that's who we serve. But we also opened up a new division of Choose Life Marketing. It's called cogency strategic and cogency strategic fights ballot initiatives that are pro-abortion. So the whole agency, all we do is work in the pro-life sector. We do not do, like we don't fight road taxes. We don't fight.

You know, we don't run campaigns, political campaigns for political positions. We just don't do that. What we do is fight for the families. So everything that cogency strategic, that, team just, you know, they go from state to state and helping organizations fight the battle. That was created recently specifically to address the 07, the us just not losing, not winning any of the states, the seven states of the most recent Ohio in 2023. So we, I mean, it's been an incredible journey. I think that, you know, God has, you know, blessed our path in the way that

we're working. We are currently working in Florida with their San Yoder Amendment 4. We are also working in Nebraska. We're working in Minnesota. And just these, you know, these battle state grounds as well as the ones that are being, you know, that are facing these battles. valid initiatives come November. Yeah. So strategic. Well, you know, I'm thinking about Planned Parenthood and I'm thinking about their marketing and how recognizable their branding is because they have been so strategic about putting

themselves out there and down to Google algorithms. When you, you know, Google pregnant in need of help, you know, whatever the first one, two, three searches that pop up in all likelihood, that's where that woman is. is heading. What are some of just the primary tools that you all provide to those pregnancy centers, whether it's billboards or playing with that Google algorithm? Like how, how does that marketing play out practically for, let's say, a pregnancy center in the middle of Oklahoma or Missouri or New Hampshire that contacts you guys and it's like, hey, we need help? That is really good, really great question. So we are a full service marketing agency.

And so which means that we do things from graphic design all the way to Google, all the way to search engine optimization. So we have the gamut of the services that a marketing agency would do. And so it's dependent upon where they are located. Let's say people of a center that is in Minneapolis is going to be treated very differently in terms of the type of tactics to create strategies for their marketing. let's say middle of Missouri. So because they're an urban area, their population is larger, there are different tactics

that we create strategies for. So we also do programmatic. We also, so there are pockets of places here in the United States or locations here in the United States that is really difficult for pregnancy. centers to reach her first because it's so bombarded with the abortion clinics and the abortion pill, those online providers that are fighting with abortion clinics, you know, because they're competing now. And oftentimes the pregnancy center gets caught in the middle of these bidding wars. So we have to be incredibly strategic in the way that we serve each center. We have to see

them as who they are as opposed to this large group that we're going to do the same things over and over for. As you often like, we have a bag of tools and we need to figure out what the problem is and then pick the different tools that we need to create the strategy. You know, it's just So we do love our pregnancy centers so much, but they are different in many ways they are. But there's a lot more pregnancy centers than there are abortion clinics. We have to remember that. And so we are, I mean, like, we are by numbers can really do well if we, were cohesive and that we do things strategic.

Yes, the other side is very sophisticated, and they also have a lot of money. So we have to lean in on strategies that are effective for each of those centers in a way that sees them as individuals and then still collaborate as a movement. It's awesome. Nellie, for anyone listening who's thinking, oh, man, I would love to pull on the resources of Choose Life Marketing or just learn more, how can they do that? You could go to our website, ChooseLifemarketing.com.

You could also send us an email at Info at ChooseLifemarketing.com. It is a pleasure to be able to have a conversation with whomever would like to know more about us and also would like to learn more about the services that we can offer. Awesome. Nellie, thank you so much for your time. Thank you for your willingness to share your story. It's just absolutely incredible to see what the Lord has done in your life and all the fruit that he's bringing from your story, from your son's story.

It's really beautiful. So thank you. Thank you so much. God is so good. Amen. Thank you. We're going to leave it there for today. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button.

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