The Eric Metaxas Show - April Lee Hernandez (Encore Continued)

Episode Date: January 24, 2025

Miracle Monday continues with actor and motivational speaker April Hernandez-Castillo talking about her difficult circumstances before, during and after her visit to an abortion facility at age 19.

Noble gold investments is the official gold sponsor of the Eric Mataxis show, a company that specializes in gold IRAs and physical delivery of precious metals. Learn how you can protect your wealth with noble gold investments. That's noble gold investments.com. Welcome to the Eric Metaxus show. It's the show featuring Go-Go the Chimp. Nothing like a chimp to liven up the radio show. Easy there. Go-go, go, go. No, go-go! No! Go-go! No! Folks, it's the Airman Taxes Show, and boy, we have a show for you. I'm sitting here in the studio with my friend April Hernandez Castillo. Now, April and I have become friends, and we joke around way too much. So, April, you better watch it.

Okay. Okay, because we're going to get serious now. Okay? No joking. We want to, we're going to, it's so great to have you here. I'm doing my best too much. It's so great to have you here. And I, we've talked about this.

You have an amazing story that I want to tell. This is going to be a miracle Monday. You've told it on this program before, but never in this studio. Okay. And it's just, it's a beautiful story. And I want the world to know this story. It's why I do this show. When I heard your story, I said, I want everybody I know to hear this story.

So, but I want to, in case people don't know who you are, it says on the paper here that you're an actress. Is this true? Sometimes. No, you are, listen, the measure of success, you're best known for the film Freedom Writers with Hillary Swank, and in that you played the role of Eva. Eva. Eva. Eva.

And when we were in the airport together, don't tell my wife, but we travel a lot, and you were recognized, I mean, it's a big deal movie for a lot of people. But, I mean, you're an actress. You've written a book called Your Voice, Your Choice. We've talked about this before. We'll get to all this. But you're most famous as an actress for that role. Yes.

You sure? Sometimes. Okay. And I realized what a big deal it was when I told my niece, Melina, because Melina doesn't care about anything. She's dead inside. And I said, Malina, you know who's coming in the freedom writers? And she's like, what? What?

No way. No way. So she was so excited. And she's sitting over there. Don't look at her. I won't. So a lot of people know you as an actress, but when you told your story in my book, Miracle, I have a copy of the book. Look, here, miracles. Milagros. The response was unbelievable. It's an important story. So I want to talk to you about the story, right? So in order to tell the story, we have to go back. We're both New Yorkers. We are. Okay. So this all took place in New York. Yes. Well, I grew up in the Bronx.

You grew up. Okay. But now you're a wife and a mother of two beautiful girls. Thank you. Oh, my gosh. They're so cute. They're very cute. But this is, this happened a while ago now. This is some years ago. It did. And when you told me the story on the plane, that time, I just thought, oh, my gosh, I have a show specifically to tell people stories like this. So where do we begin? This is before you became an actress. Yes. This is. I think before anything, it was just, I was in a situation that I was in an abusive relationship. I was able to leave. But unfortunately, I then became pregnant.

You were, I mean, obviously, from what you just said, you were not walking with God, so to speak. You were just. I grew up Catholic. Yeah, which, I mean, you know, usually doesn't mean anything, right? You know, so, but I'm saying so you were in an abusive relationship with this man. You managed to get out of it. Yes. And you do a lot of speaking on domestic abuse and all this kind of stuff.

You imagine to get out of it, but you get out of it and then you find out. I'm pregnant. You're pregnant. And my world comes crashing down. How old were you at the time? I want to say I was about 19, 19 and a half. It's still a teen age. That's what you said, the 19.

It's in the book, so it has to be right. It has to be right. So you were 19. I was 19. Okay, you find it you're pregnant. Now what? Then my world crashed because I knew in my mind and in my heart that I was not willing to bring a baby into this world, especially because I knew that this man would be in my life forever if he chose to, but you're not thinking that far.

You're just thinking in the moment. And my gut reaction was, well, I'm just going to have an abortion. And it was so easy. It really is easy. It's not something that, especially all of your friends are pretty conditioned to say, there's never well there are other options it's always are you going to have it or what are you going to do and we already know what that what are you going to do means it means that you're going to have an abortion and so i didn't really tell a lot of people i was able to get help and then i made the appointment

for the abortion and the appointment was in manhattan manhattan and you're from the girl from the bronx yes uh okay it was in park avenue in a very very nice corporate building it's like down on 33rd Street. I know the building. Very few people know what's going on in that building. It's a big building. You don't realize that something like that evil could be happening. Okay. So your kid, you decide to do this because that's the cultural pressure, of course. What else are you going to do? There's no other options. You have to do this. So what is that experience? I mean, even going up to that point, were you thinking about what you're

doing or what influences are on you at that point? Or is it just something you're just going to go and do it? I think you just, once you make up your mind, especially to do something like that, it's pretty much made up. Unless you have a miracle happen where something just comes inside of you and you say, you know what, I'm not going to do this. But I made up my mind. And what's so funny was that morning, I think the night before was the first time I, you know,

threw up. And for me it was real. Like, oh my goodness, I have a child inside of me. these are some of the symptoms that go on, I guess, when you become pregnant. And then Saturday morning I woke up and I took the train. I was by myself. And I remember when I got out, I was looking at the building and there were just people protesting. And I just remember they had large pictures of babies that were aborted.

And the whole time I'm thinking, I'm going to hell. That's all I'm thinking. I'm like, I'm going to go to hell. Like, I have to go to hell because I'm doing this. See, that's a good thing about the Catholic Church. at least planted the idea in your mind. If you do wrong, you're going to go to hell. That there is right and wrong and whatever.

Even though you went through with this, the point is you didn't say, who cares? You were. No, I really felt bad. I really felt convicted. I just. So you were not psyched to do this. This was not empowering for you. There was nothing empowering about going to a place like this to take out a baby.

It just wasn't. There's nothing empowering about that. even though it was a choice that I made, because at that time I did feel like it was the right choice for me. So as I walk in, I'm escorted by the police because they were just getting aggressive. The protesters were getting aggressive. They were just getting aggressive.

And so on top of feeling horrible, you're just there like, okay, this is, you know what? This is what I deserve for doing this. And so I finally go upstairs, and I just, I felt like I was in a twilight zone. It was a twilight zone. I was sobbing. I'd go up to the front.

You're sobbing as you're walking into the abortion clinic. I'm sobbing. And there was no one to comfort me. There wasn't anyone to say, you don't have to do this. There are other options. There are other ways. It was just, how are you going to pay for this? And at that time, it was $400 and I had cash.

I don't even remember how I got the money. but then you find you're just filling out forms but when you when you look around there's about maybe 35 women there all pregnant the majority of them were African American young you see this is interesting because I mean I know this through my wife and Vail which is the which is this women's center that deals with you know unplanned pregnancies whatever you hear that the the the, you know, so-called abortion providers market very strongly to minority, young minority women, and they're making a lot of money by doing that. Oh, it is a cash business. It is a business. It is a corporation. It is not a place to make you feel great about this decision that you're going to make.

And as I was looking around, I just was thinking, wow, there's so many young girls here. Okay. So at the time, you're like 19, but you're saying that there are girls younger than you, younger than me, African-Americans sitting there waiting for this to happen. Maybe the youngest, from what I could just see, because you can just tell baby features, maybe 13, 14. What? Well, because when you go into an abortion, you don't... 13, 14.

Yeah, you don't need a parent. You don't need a parent in New York State? Absolutely not. You don't need permission from anyone. You can just go as long as you have payment, as long as you have the ability to pay. Okay. Oh, man. Folks, I'm talking to April Hernandez Castillo, and this is a crazy, important story. It's the Arkham, Texas show. Numbers don't lie. The impact that Balance of Nature makes every single day is astounding. You can see the numbers for yourself on their website at Balance of Nature.com. Listen to these stats concerning Balance of Nature's worldwide success. More than a thousand success stories reported each month. Hundreds of thousands of customers worldwide. millions of orders delivered each year and billions, yes, billions of fruits and veggie supplements

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to shopbeam.com slash metaxis. Use code metaxis at checkout. That's shopbeam.com slash metaxis. Use code metaxis for up to 40% off. This is April. April Hernandez Castillo. Welcome back to the program. Thank you. My friend. You've been on this program a few times, but I want to remind people that you were one of the stars of the movie Freedom Writers with Hillary Swank. And, So you're known as an actress. You've been on, you know, whatever. Like so many shows, I was going to say, you've been on Nurse Jackie. I mean, a lot of shows, SUV, whatever, SV.

I was just going to wait. Thank you. So you're known as an actress, right? You're a New Yorker. You're a mother. You're a wife. And you have a book out called Your Voice, Your Choice, where you talk about a lot of the stuff that we've been talking about on this program.

But I want to talk to you because you, You tell the story of at age 19. I mean, I tell the story in my miracles book, but you've told the story on this program about your experience at age 19 of having this abortion, being an abusive relationship, getting pregnant or whatever, and then how God forgave you. I mean, it's a very beautiful story because it has so many pieces to it. It's not a simple story. It's like, it's complex.

My walk with God is never simple. Well, it's God is not simple and we're not simple, right? So people want to reduce God to like, you know, black and white. Very true. Which brings us to the subject, you know, that I think there are people that God calls everybody to a different place, right? And there's some people that are activists in one thing or another. But I think it's important just to talk about the human element of this story, right? That there are women who feel like they don't have a choice.

They don't know that somebody might say to them, look, I want to help you to choose. life. Let me, let me, let me give you this perspective. I'm not judging you. I want to give you a perspective. They never hear that perspective. If they hear one perspective, take care of it, a few hundred bucks, go do it, whatever. And then for the rest of their life, they're trying like you were to process what they have done and they're being told, shut up. We don't want to hear about your pain, your trauma. That's not good for the cause. That's bringing women down. So shut up. And a lot of these women are saying, well, I can't shut up. I have this wound. Where do I go with this? It's so great that you say that because you never see post-abortion. No. Right? You never hear of the post-abortion

experience. At first, it's my right and I'm going to do this. Great. I was there. I get it. And then there's no disclaimer. You will suffer anxiety. You will suffer from panic attacks, especially when you begin to think about becoming a mother. Oh, that's when it really sets in because the moment that you don't conceive right away, you're like, it's because of what I did. So then you're really conceiving out of pure anxiety, right, panic, then no one talks about.

I would love to go on Oprah. I would love to go on the real. I would love to go on these shows and be able to share my story from a perspective of saying, I'm not for this and I'm not for that, but I just need you to hear my story of what really happens. Someday, and I'm not ready yet, but someday I will have you on my show. Yeah.

But I'm just not ready yet. And then, you know, what we were talking about, social media, right? So last week when the law was passed with Cuomo and all that, people were up in arms and losing their mind. And I sort of was thinking, wow, this isn't good, but this is expected. I don't know why people are losing their minds. Really, if you don't know where this world is going, then you have a problem. I think well let me just let me just say as one of the people losing his mind over this I think it was the brazeness of I mean here's the issue when you make a law that says a woman can have an abortion up until the moment of birth right it makes it very real for a lot of people and they say wait a second it's one thing to be pro choice and to be misguided or to say that you know when when you when you're a few weeks along you're you're you're a few weeks along you're you're you're you're you're a few weeks along you're you're you're you're you're you're you're You give it, whatever.

It's one thing to have conversations at that level. But when somebody kind of brazenly says, you know what we're going to do? We're going to make a law. We're going to write it into the statutes of the state of New York, a law that says that you can walk in any place you want, and you don't have to give any reasons or whatever, and you can, quote, unquote, terminate your pregnancy. You know, from looking at the sonogram that at two months, it looks like a baby, what do you think it looks like at seven months and eight months? And at that moment, if you got in a car crash, okay, and you die,

and the ambulance, they somehow managed to get the baby out of you, it's going to live. Yes. It is, there's no doubt at that point. So it was the brazenness of that law. But then I think it was made much worse because the governor ordered that the Freedom Tower be lit up in pink. and the Tappamesee Bridge be lip and pink as a celebration of, quote, women's. And you think women's, half of the children in the wombs are women, number one. And then most of the women are going through this.

This is no celebration. This is a sad tragedy. There's no, listen, once again, I tell people, the first question I always hit people when they're ready to attack me, I go, let me ask you a question. Have you ever walked into an abortion clinic? Dead silence. Secondly, have you ever seen a baby being abortions? Do you know what that looks like? I need you to go online right now and go look at it,

and then I need you to come and talk to me. Then it's pretty much radio silence. And so last week I was on social media, and I became very irate, and I did something very bold, and I put a picture up of an aborted baby at 12 weeks. People wanted to kill me. I lost a whole bunch of followers.

People were like, what's wrong with you? What's going on? And I said, because we live in a visual world, my friends, because we don't really get to see what's going on, I wanted to shock you because we need to be shocked. And I was very intentional with that photo. My husband and I had to process. He goes, why did you do it?

And I explained to him. And I said, listen, this is, I'm not taking anybody side. I'm speaking from experience. But you see, you know what I find funny about this? And it's not funny, but it's funny because I know you. Yes. You're not the kind of person to ever do anything like that. Who posts those

pictures. You're not that person. I'm not that person. So the fact that you did that, it's very interesting that you're coming from a very different place in doing this. It's out of character. If you go on my feed, right? If you follow me on Instagram, you know I'm all about empowerment and positivity. So I had to just shock because, first of all,

an abortion happening that late has always been happening. That's not anything new. That's right. It's just, it's in New York City now. And it's, you know, being celebrated. And I knew that. I was like, wait a minute, but this is happening all the time. And as a matter of fact, when I was there, there was a woman who was pregnant.

When you were getting your abortion, 19 years old. In the waiting room, there's a woman showing? Absolutely. That's unbelievable. She was showing. And in my head, I wasn't judging her. I just was wondering.

I'm thinking, why wouldn't she just give it up for adoption? Now, listen, does abortion, if a woman becomes raped and she cannot carry this, that's, that's yes. That's up to her. If there's something medically wrong, and you as a mother, can't handle that, then that is, yes, that is your right. And I get that. And that's what everyone throws at. That's the argument.

People know I disagree with what you just said, but I'm not here to argue with you. No, no, no. I'm saying because, well, when I was pregnant of my second daughter, they told me that she would probably have Down syndrome. Right. At that moment, I went through such agony because I thought, could I raise a child? Yeah. That would be Down syndrome.

Could I handle that pressure? Okay. Number one, it doesn't matter because. Because there are plenty people that would be glad to raise the child. Absolutely. Number one. Number two, how many women, I know so many people that have been told by doctors, this is why it's so great you brought this up?

Yes. That have been told by doctors. We've done the test. You're probably going to have a Down syndrome kid. And tell me, is your daughter down syndrome? Well, I prayed the blood of Jesus over her. But I'm saying, but the point is, like, obviously not. But sometimes they don't give you the option and you feel like the only thing you can do is abort.

What I'm trying to say, Bill, is that I have for years heard people tell me that when I was pregnant or when my wife was pregnant, the doctor told us this and pushing us to terminate the pregnancy, okay? Remember, it's a business. So they have to push you. And I'm saying they say, and we chose not to. Yes. And when the kid was born, every single time, the thing the doctor said didn't happen. I've heard this. I can't tell you.

I cannot tell you. So the point is, let's say you don't believe this is a human being. And you listen to the doctor and you get, well, and guess what? The doctor was wrong. You know, in other words, not that it's a terrible thing to have Down syndrome kid because I know so many people who do and they're the most beautiful creatures in the world. Absolutely. But the doctors, I just cannot tell you how many times I've heard the story that a couple is scared by a doctor and they're pushed to do this and they don't do it. And then when the kid is born, they're like, oh my goodness, it was absolutely fine.

They didn't have a heart defected. No, I mean, just imagine you're going. home with this information, right? You can't see the baby, so you're thinking, gosh, there's a 50-50 chance. Can I deal with that other side of the coin? I don't know. Will I have the support? A lot of women feel, especially if they're single mothers, so they don't have that support. We're going to a hard break. Folks, we'll be right back with April Hernandez-Castio. It's the Irkmatakis show. Hey there, folks. My Pillow is excited to announce that their Christmas extravaganza is finally here. Get this season's flannel sheets for as low as 59-98. They won't last long,

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But that's not all. They're extending their 60-day money-back guarantee till March 1st, plus all orders. $75 or more. Ship absolutely free. Mypillow.com. Use code Eric. Hey there, folks. It's here for Taxis Show. Who picks this music, hey, Paul.

It's amazing. I love that. It's unbelievable. Okay, so Country Joe and the Fishwood just in the studio. You just missed them. Oh, gosh. Just kidding. Okay, so we're talking about, you know, does some heavy stuff here. So you're saying...

I love the fact that you brought up, you know, when they lit up the stuff in pink, because my experience did not speak of celebration. But most people would say that. I didn't feel celebratory when I left that I was like, whew! When you're saying when you left the abortion clinic, right? Yeah. That's what I'm saying. I feel dead.

I think most people know this is not something to celebrate. This is sad. And the Clintons, back when they were still pro-abortion, but they said, let's have abortions safe, legal, and rare. At least they were saying, we think it's a good idea that they're rare because it's not a good thing. It sounds a good thing. Now you have this, you know, shout your abortion stuff and whatever, and people are acting like this a good thing. I was like, in what universe is this a good thing? Well, because you, once again, when you can remove yourself from the actual act, the taking in that there is a human being because some people think it's just blood.

So I'm okay. But how do you justify that when it's a baby, that there have been babies. born premature at 18 weeks, 22 weeks, and survive and become amazing human beings. So how can you make that? It just, it drives me crazy. And so it's one of those, I saw that, and people wanted to stone me. So when you put the picture on social media of an aborted 12-week-old, and again, that's like, that's at the beginning of this process.

I mean, 12 weeks. But you see there's limbs and things like that. That's what I'm saying. It's like that's bad news for people who want to pretend that it's like a cyst. Yeah, yeah. And like I said, I did it because I just was like, guys, I need you to see. I just need you to see. If I can have you open your eyes, remove the veil from what you think is right or wrong. What if we just looked at it from this? That's all I'm asking is that you see and that you come from a different aspect. Once again, I don't think that there are any options. No one knows that there are options. Maybe if I had options. Maybe. Maybe if I had options. if I felt that I would be okay. I think that when a woman becomes pregnant, especially if it's an unplanned pregnancy, if she's had four or five kids and she doesn't want this child,

she's like, I just can't do it. I understand. I was there. I couldn't do it. But it's never an option. It's either this or that. Well, you know, I was going to say that the pregnancy centers, like the one that Suzanne has been a part of for so many years,

a veil here in New York City, they say that their model of care is to let a woman know that we're there for you and we want to help you. Once they come alongside a woman, everything changes because the woman says, oh, you're here to help me, you're here to help. And so suddenly the woman says, well, then, yeah, I can do this. I want to do this. Now she's really empowered. Now I want to do it. I was going to say now, actually, she's empowered.

She's empowered. Before she was convinced, I have no choice. what else am I going to do? Everybody says, just do it, do it, do it. And so once you're given an option, but I feel like, you know, you said before that it's a business. I think that's the problem is that Planned Parenthood in these places, they're businesses.

They want people to have abortions. This is how they're making all of their money. This is how they stay in business. And so once you let women know there are other options, Planned Parenthooden and says you're threatening our bottom line. And so it becomes a political, war, it becomes, you know, and that's to me what's sad because there are real people involved in this. I always wonder for the people who are very passionate and activists for pro-choice, I wonder how

many women have actually had abortions. I wonder how many of them are in deep pain and they mask it with activism. No doubt. I wonder if I were to just sit and speak to one of them and really get them to tell their story if they would still have the same perspective because I think it's when you remove all of that and just get to the heart let me talk to you let me talk to your heart

let me talk to that woman who walked into that room who when you left you were never the same I don't care how much you think you are okay you are not there's no person that can conceive especially, I mean, if you think about all the women who can't conceive, you think about women who are trying to have children, and they look at this and say, where do I fit in all of this? What say do I have? And so it's how can we have a conversation amongst women? How can I be celebrated as a woman who survived a post-abortion and not be looked down upon? Why or how can I get on the show like yourself and someone be open? to what I have to say and not automatically assume that I have an agenda.

Why can't I just tell you my experience? Well, that's what I'm saying. One of the reasons I wanted to have you on is because I get angry when people are silenced. And everything you've talked about, people's message to you is, shut up. We're not going to have you on the show. We don't want to hear what you have to say. We don't want anyone who has to say some of the stuff that you say. We don't want to hear it.

And I think to myself, really, because there are a lot of women who watch TV. It would mean a lot to them to hear your story. They're not going to see it on the view. Oprah never had all this talk about women. What about those women, Oprah? You don't want to have them on. You don't want to hear those stories. And I feel like when somebody tells you shut up, that's when I start saying, okay, something is wrong.

If you don't want to hear something, you're afraid of something. You're afraid of the truth. Yes. You're pushing something down. We're going to go to a break here. And I will give April a chance to talk eventually in the next segment. Stick around. Texas.

And I'm sitting here with my guest and friend April Hernandez-Castio. April, I mean, we're talking about it. A lot of stuff here. But so, yeah, people like lost it on social media with you because you dared to post this picture. And what I find interesting is that if anybody has the right to do that, you do because you did that. It's like, and so you know what they say that they're to them. You're just like a traitor. It's like when somebody who's black doesn't like what somebody else who's black is saying, they just use a word.

They just say, oh, you're an uncle Tom. Like they just, it's just a way to shut you up. Yes. Well, so I ended up taking out the photo because I knew I wasn't going to leave it. It's just too gruesome to leave up. So I think the next day or the day after, for the first time, I shared that I had an abortion. I just wrote it and I released it. I prayed and I said, God, if this can let people understand me a bit more. And the response was amazing. What do you mean? People were just saying this is the most honest thing I've ever read on social media as far as, you know, I did it on Instagram.

And I had maybe about three or four women, DM me, send me a message and say, thank you because I've had one. And I suffer from depression. I suffer from anxiety. And I was like, okay, if this is what I can do just to say you're not alone and that God, loves you, then that is what I'm going to do. And I had a lot of men reach out and confess that they had their girlfriends or ex-girlfriends had abortions and they never processed their feelings. It was amazing, actually. And I said, if we can get to this kind of place where, if we, let's just talk. I don't need you to be on this side. I don't want to be on, I just need, let's just really talk about it.

let's just hear because so many women don't have. I mean, they just, especially women in church. I was going to say, that's a whole other thing, right? That's a whole other, right? That's something where you're just, women in churches and even Christian women are having abortions and they're suffering even more because they're probably thinking, I'm a Christian. How can I do this? Yeah.

Well, that's a good question. but the problem is we need to let people know no matter what you've done, there's forgiveness. Like that's the number one thing. It's like there's no point where you say you're past forgiveness. God wants to forgive you. So how could people dare not forgive you? And I think I'm stepping more into it because I was able to tell the story and not break down the way I used to. And I just know that God, I think, is going to be taking.

me to different places and I said, I'm ready. I'm ready. And I want to do it the way that you want me to do it. I don't want to go by anybody else's rules. I'm willing to stand in the gray area. I don't want to be in the West Side story. I don't want to do that. I want to be able to just tell someone my story, give them options and just let them know about the love of God and his grace. Because that grace allowed me to give birth to two little grace. girls who, Eric, when I tell you, when you think you don't deserve to become a mother, it's the worst feeling in the world. But then his grace, and I have two girls, so technically I'm a mother of three girls. That's right.

And it took me a long time to even accept that. And I say, well, I'm, you know, whenever you go to the GYN, they ask you, have you ever had any pregnancies? And I would always feel condemned and I would feel ashamed. And honestly, it's still sort of hard because they'll say, oh, how would happen? And I'm like an abortion. And it's that, it's that, like abortion. But technically, I'm a mother of three girls. That's right.

Yeah. It's not even technically. You are. You know, that's real. Whoa. April. Santo, hallelujah. We're going to edit this out in post.

We don't like to get emotional on this program. We're very buttoned up. We're very buttoned up. It's really an intellectual program. Yes. I forgot to tell you. Well, man, this is. So you, now, you posted this on Instagram.

Yes. And obviously, people want to follow you on Instagram. It's what? At April L. Hernandez. I'm actually. April L. Hernandez. I'm no longer on Twitter. You no longer on Twitter because Twitter is nasty.

It's just. Twitter is so nasty. I really. I thought Facebook was bad, but Twitter is, so I said, in the name of Jesus, I deleted my account. No, it's, it's, people on Twitter, there's just, like, I give it to you, I give it to you, you're tough. They're hateful, they're hateful people. I give it to you. They're just nasty people, wow, whatever, what are you going to do?

I mean, people are being killed for their faith. So, like, what, I can't take some nastiness on Twitter. I will block you, though. Oh, I block, like, I block everybody. Or mute? No, no, no way, man. You go all the way in, you just block you? No, I've never muted anyone.

I will just block you. But you know why? Because if you're going to be nasty or you're going to do it, even when somebody will, like, you know, like let's say I tweet something, right? And then later on, like people are giving me grief and I think about it. And I go, you know what? I probably shouldn't have tweeted that now that I think of it, like there's something confusing or whatever. So I'll delete the tweet, right?

There are people who will go to the way back machine. They'll find it and they'll put it up. Just kind of be like, no, you can't delete it. we're going to shove it in your face. And I think that's just so ungracious. It's just wrong. And so anybody who does that, I will block them. In other words, that kind of behavior, I don't want that in my life.

Like, life is too short. You want to be nasty? Not around me. I'm just not going to put up with it because there are, you have to believe that we can be gracious to each other, even if we disagree. If somebody disagrees with me and you say it nicely, I respect you. I mean, I totally respect you. So that's why I just think.

I think it's important. But so you are, in case people want to follow you on Instagram. April L. Hernandez. And you've done so many different things. Now, you have a book, your voice, your choice. I know you do a lot of speaking. You're Puerto Rican. Are you still Puerto Rican?

Last summer I checked yesterday. Really? Okay. And my husband is from Nicaragua. He's from Nicaragua. Now, why is it that Nicaragua is never pronounced Nicaragua? It's like people, Nicaragua. So, because it's politically correct.

You got to say certain places you've got to pronounce the way they want to pronounce. When somebody says Greece, they don't say yelada. They don't say that. They just say Greece because the American word is Greece. We're going to be right back, final segment, with April Hernandez-Castillo. This is the Airquistaxas show. And April Hernandez-Castillo and Eric Pataxis are having a conversation. And here we are.

And I guess the Lord must be in New York City because you're, in New York City. I am. And I'm in New York City. And there's a lot of good stuff happening in New York City. People don't know about it. They only hear the bad stuff, like the laws that we make. We love buildings to celebrate the saddest thing in the world. I know. So, but it's okay because there's a lot of people like us here and we're not, I think because we live here, we can see both sides in a different way. I believe so. I mean, for people who are willing to open their minds and to have a conversation, there's some people they can't do it. They don't want to have a conversation. Why do you think, though? Because it's stupid. Oh. No, because I think because it's painful.

It's too painful. They don't want to. Like what you just said earlier about when somebody gets in your face and you say, have you ever been to an abortion clinic? Have you ever seen an abortion? I actually think that if you want to take the position that abortion should be legal, you have to have the guts to go online and spend time. watching abortions because most people don't know what they're talking about. You can't even stomach. And even in third trimester, you cannot even fathom the process that goes on.

I mean, I can fathom, and that's why. No, I'm saying for the people who are, you know. That's what I'm saying. Look, when we're talking about there was just a ruling, was it in Texas, whatever, but David Delighton who made the undercover videos of, you know, selling baby parts, plant parenthood, right? They said, oh, it's Dr. Tapes. The court just ruled, guess what?

No, it's not Dr. Tapes. And this is actually true. Like, this is real. So, you know, if you can't deal with the facts, if you have to use heavy-handed cliches to shut people up or whatever, I think, wait a second, you're afraid of something. Like, if you think it's okay to sell baby parts, like, I would respect you if you make your case. I will disagree, but I'll respect you. But these people basically saying, shut up. Like, that's their argument.

Shut your mouth because you make me sick. People like you make me sick. And I think that's not really an argument. Well, for one of the great things that happened in my post, so I had two conversations with young women. One woman was extremely irate with me. And she just went off. And at first I was going to block her. But we were on DM.

And I said, okay, we'll do this. So I told her my story. because I didn't share my story with the photo. I didn't want my story. I said, no, I just want you to see this photo. So she was just irate. And then I began to tell her myself. I said, okay, so I was about 19 and a half.

I was in an abusive relationship. I was suicidal. And then I became pregnant. And I had an abortion. So I don't just come from one side. I actually come from experience. Let me ask you, can you now hear me? This one didn't know who she was tangled with.

And she said, wow, that didn't come across in that. that post. I said, well, one, I wasn't intending for that to come across in that post. I was intending to shock. I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Once again, does that change your perspective of my thought process? She said, wow, thank you. The next day, someone else asked me a question. And I said, this and this, exactly same thing. I was suicidal. I was an abusive relationship, almost lost my life. And then I became pregnant, and I had an abortion. Let's talk. and I was like if that could happen, if I could just get you to ask a question instead of raising your hand and saying this is what I believe, really, do you really believe that? Well, that's the question.

Do you dare to look at all the facts and figure out what you really do think? Exactly. And if you've watched an abortion or whatever, you know, you may change your views a little bit. Just a little bit. We're at a time. April. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Now, people can find you at April L. Hernandez. on Instagram and you've got a website you've got a book you've got a whole thing going on thanks for stopping by thank you