Today we’d like to introduce you to Angie Johnson.
Hi Angie, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
PROLIFE Across AMERICA began with one woman’s conviction that every life has value. In 1970, after Canada legalized abortion and efforts were underway to liberalize abortion laws in the United States, a young Minnesota mother named Mary Ann Kuharski was encouraged by a friend to become involved in the pro-life movement. As an adoptee herself through Catholic Charities, Mary Ann understood personally how close her own life had come to being lost before birth.
Born into one of the last orphanages in Minnesota and adopted at nine months old by a loving Italian-German family, Mary Ann carried a deep gratitude for life and adoption. She joined a Minnesota pro-life organization and soon became active in both grassroots advocacy and state politics, speaking publicly on pro-life issues throughout the early 1970s.
In 1972, she began volunteering with Birthright in Minneapolis as a counselor and speaker. Around the same time, she helped Sister Jeanne Therese Condon establish a pro-life pregnancy support center at the University of St. Thomas and spoke at outreach events at the University of Minnesota’s Mayo Auditorium.
By the mid-1970s, Mary Ann’s family had grown significantly. Together with her husband John, they welcomed six biological children and adopted six more children of mixed races, many with special needs. During this period, Mary Ann also testified twice before Congress during hearings on adoption, advocating for the dignity and protection of vulnerable children.
Yet after years in politics, Mary Ann came to believe that lasting cultural change would not come primarily through legislation or political campaigns. She saw the growing influence of a secular media culture and encountered many women who felt abortion was their only option. Her heart increasingly turned toward education, compassion, and changing hearts rather than political battles.
In 1989, Mary Ann and her husband John joined with friends Mike and Dorothy Fleming around their kitchen table to launch PROLIFE MINNESOTA. Their mission was simple: communicate the truth about the developing unborn child in a way that could not be ignored. They believed billboards could reach ordinary people in everyday moments with factual, non-confrontational messages about life in the womb.
With little more than determination and donations collected from churches across Minnesota, the organization launched its first 42 billboards featuring the message:
“A Baby is a Baby, is a Baby… Listen to the heartbeat: Heartbeat 24 days from conception.”
At the time, there was no office, hotline, or business phone. But only two weeks after the billboards appeared, Mary Ann received a call from a pro-life clinic director in St. Paul. A woman scheduled for an abortion had walked into the clinic and explained that she “couldn’t stand to drive by that billboard on my way to work and go through with the abortion.”
That moment confirmed the power of the message and the beginning of a much larger mission.
The organization soon expanded, renting office space, installing a hotline, and building a national support network. Six years later, because of growing donations and requests from around the country, the ministry officially became PROLIFE Across AMERICA — a nationwide 501(c)(3), nonprofit, non-political educational organization dedicated to changing hearts and saving lives.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
This work does not come without its challenges:
– Our Billboards have been vandalized, and we have to pay to replace them.
– We receive hate calls and emails every single week.
– Big Tech companies have rejected or suppressed many of our Online Ads—simply because we offer life-affirming alternatives to abortion!
– And, some Billboard companies have refused to work with us, making it harder to cover some cities.
But we refuse to back down. In fact, we want to do the opposite:
– Run more Billboards.
– Reach more Women.
– Save more Babies.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about PROLIFE Across AMERICA?
Prolife Across America is known as “The Billboard People” – we broadcast pro-life messages on billboards, Internet ads, and radio ads. This year we are celebrating our 37th Anniversary and have Billboards in all 46 states (4 states do not allow billboards). Our positive ads feature facts about a baby’s development before birth, as well as our 800# Hotline for Help. Prolife Across America is dedicated to educating people to change their hearts and minds on this issue – and, of course, to save babies’ lives!
We know our billboards are proven to work. We recently received a call to our Hotline from a woman from Minneapolis who said that three-and-a-half years ago she was planning to have an abortion. She simply said it was “due to circumstances in her life.” But she passed by one of our Billboards, and had second thoughts. A couple years later, she drive past another billboard – this time she said she took a picture of it and started to cry because she was in the car driving to church with her little girl in the backseat. She just called to say thank you! We may never know the affects our Billboards have on those who view them. But we know that our culture needs to know the truth.
This is exactly why we have a Hotline for Help! We can connect callers with:
– free confidential counseling
– pregnancy assistance (medical care, baby supplies, parenting classes, and more)
– adoption information
– post-abortion counseling and assistance
We aim to serve as a link for women and/or couples in need to help them find a pregnancy support center in their local area. Over 3,000 of these pro-life support centers exist nationwide, but many people do not know about them. This is one of the reasons why Prolife Across America was originally started.
Last year we were able to sponsor 10,450 Billboards in 46 states. On average, our Hotline for Help receives over 800 calls/emails/web chats each month. These aren’t just numbers to us – this means that many people in need were reached with these crucial life-saving messages and they were given the help they need!
Prolife Across America is a non-profit, non-political organization. We do not receive any government grants or have the backing of any large foundations – we’re totally dependent on individual donors. We are proud to say that Prolife Across America has been recognized by Charity Navigator as a 4-star charity, which is their highest ranking. In fact, only less than 2 cents of every dollar donated goes toward administrative costs. We want as much as possible to go directly toward our life-saving ads.
Who else deserves credit in your story?
Yes, my biggest inspiration and mentor is my Mom, Mary Ann Kuharski. She founded ProLife Across America in 1989, but she also raised 13 children (she had 7 by tummy and 6 by adoption). Not only that – she is the author of 5 books and has traveled around the U.S. speaking on this issue as well as family life. She has consistently placed the value of every human life above other issues and has fought to restore our culture to treat all life with dignity and worth.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://prolifeacrossamerica.org
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ProlifeAcrossAmerica/
- Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/PROLIFEacrossAMERICA
