August 26, 2025 • 18 mins
THERE ARE ALTERNATIVES TO PLANNED PARENTHOOD And I'm not just talking about abortion, I'm talking about providing women's healthcare and STI testing. It's the Alternatives Pregnancy Center and Executive Director Ashley Graves joins me at 1pm to talk about what they do. If you are staunchly pro life, this is the sort of organization you might want to consider donating time and money to. Just a thought. Find out more about all they offer here. They have two great events coming up with Tim Tebow!
GALA – Tim will be the keynote speaker on Sun., Sept. 14 at 6 p.m. at the Gaylord
GOLF TOURNAMENT – Mon., Sept. 15 at 10 a.m. Cherry Creek Country Club…limited spots remainSponsorships, tickets, tables and foursomes are all available by texting Tebow25 to 50155 or going to YouhaveAlternatives.org
GALA – Tim will be the keynote speaker on Sun., Sept. 14 at 6 p.m. at the Gaylord
GOLF TOURNAMENT – Mon., Sept. 15 at 10 a.m. Cherry Creek Country Club…limited spots remainSponsorships, tickets, tables and foursomes are all available by texting Tebow25 to 50155 or going to YouhaveAlternatives.org
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
In the studio with me now is the executive director
of an organization that I want you to pay attention
to because we've talked about on the show before that Colorado,
like it or not, is a pro choice state.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Okay, full stop.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
There's no polling day to the shows that it is
anything but a majority pro choice state. Does that mean
if your pro life you should just throw in the
towel and just call it a day.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
No, it doesn't.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
But it means that any time energy or effort you
spend trying to limit abortion in Colorado is going to
be wasted.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
The only way to.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Limit abortion in Colorado is to give women an alternative
that would support them in a pregnancy that maybe they
were not prepared for. And that's why I have Ashley
Graves in the studio with me right now from Alternatives
Pregnancy Center.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
First of all, Ashley, welcome to the show. Thank you
very much. I'm glad to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Well, I'm glad to have you, and I honestly vaguely
familiar with the Alternatives Pregnancy Center, mostly because things that
listeners have sent me. We have people that are listening audience,
we have a lot of pro choice people are at
our listening audience. We have a lot of pro life
people in our listening audience, and even I would think
that a vast majority of the pro choice people in
this listening audience would love to think that when truly
(01:11):
do have a choice right, that it's not just the
choice part only means choosing an abortion. So tell me
a little bit about what Alternatives Pregnancy Center does what
you provide, and not just about abortion.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
You guys do a whole bunch of stuff. Tell me
about that absolutely.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
So we walk beside women and men that find themselves
in the complexity of an unplaned pregnancy. And like our
doctor's appointments are our nurse appointments, they're an hour long.
When was the last time you went to a doctor
and you got an hour long appointment? And we sit
with them and we look at the whole human being,
the whole person mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. What is
(01:50):
going on? How can we walk with them? We show
them there's other alternatives. We don't beat them into a decision,
We love on them, We give them infirmation.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
The other thing that honestly.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
A lot of pro choice people have supported is we
walk beside them till the baby's a year old. We
do mentoring, We have fatherhood mentoring. Wow, like that's been huge.
And then we also have counseling after abortion, and that
those pieces, even pro choice people can't be upset about
(02:22):
because we're still walking with these individuals.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
We don't drop them off.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
We still love on them, and if they choose to
have an abortion, we still love them. We want them
to have counseling, healing all of them.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
You have them to be making an informed choice, absolutely,
and that is something And I've never had to make
this decision, and I'm very grateful that I never found
myself in this position. But boy do I know a
lot of women that have found themselves in this position.
And in my friend group, I have women who have
made all different choices. I have had women who decided,
(02:54):
I'm gonna have this baby, I'm gonna keep this baby.
I have friends who have decided I'm gonna have this
baby and give it to a family that can provide
about her home. And I have friends that have chosen
to have an abortion. But what I find the most
striking is that all of them, at some point have
talked about that decision. And the two that actually gave
(03:15):
birth to that baby. Have never regretted it. And I'm
not saying every friend I have who's had an abortion
regrets it. That would be inaccurate, that would be a lie.
But the friends that have had it, more than one
has said later that was the worst choice ever made, right,
But they.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Didn't feel like they had a choice, and they maybe
didn't feel like there's someone to listen or someone to
talk out the process with, or maybe even ten years
down the road, did they find someone to talk with.
I personally was counseled to abort my oldest child. She
was testing high for Down syndrome right and we were
at Texas Tech Medical Center and in genetic counseling, and
(03:54):
she said, we're giving you this information and so you
have the information in case you and to terminate their pregnancy.
And my husband and I looked at her in complete shock.
And then we go for the next set of testing.
They offered us termination yet again. And if she would
have been Down syndrome, we would have loved her completely
and totally. That she has come out this genius and
(04:16):
this amazing woman of like that we would have missed.
We would have missed her voice.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Because I was of advanced maternal age when I had
my daughter, and my husband was five years older than
I was. In our first meeting with our midwife, they said, okay,
do you want to do genetic testing? And I said, well,
you know, I in the course of this, if we
find out there's something severely wrong, we can talk. But
if we have a child with Down syndrome, we've already
talked about it because we're older and we're okay with
(04:42):
that and we don't want to hear about termination again.
And our doctors, to their credit, said, no problem, marked
it down, said we're not going to talk about this again.
But there is a tremendous amount of pressure now and
those tests are not always accurate.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
They are not they have and then I've heard recently
they're like, ashulely, the tests are better. But a young
woman that I've walked beside since she was fifteen years old,
she in the last two years got a false positive
and I'm like.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
They're not that much better. You can't just trust that information.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
So yeah, now, when someone comes to the Alternative's pregnancy Center,
walk me through that process. I've always thought, and maybe
I'm wrong about this, are people that tend to gravitate
towards a place called Alternatives Pregnancy Center. Maybe they're already
questioning if they're going to walk that path on abortion.
Maybe they want to be talked out of it.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Right? Is that accurate? Not always?
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Sometimes they come in very determined, like they have already
made their mind.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
A they want an abortion, Okay.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
They come to us, We sit them down and we
do a medical grade pregnancy test with our ns, and
we talk through what's going on in your life right now?
What are you feeling, what is happening? Why are you
feeling anxiety about this right now? We find out a
lot of information, and it's amazing how often we open
(06:02):
the door for additional resources they didn't know they could get.
We are experts on what's available in the counties and
what resources are available to them.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
A lot of them.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
It may be I don't have housing, How can I
have this baby?
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Right?
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Let us open the door to some organizations that can help.
My partner is abusing me, How can I have this baby?
We aren't experts on domestic violence, but we know who is. Yeah,
and that is our goal to know who are the
experts that can walk with these women and empower them
so they don't feel so trapped.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
And a lot of people just in general don't recognize
or realize how many organizations exist, and our organizations like
you that can kind of act as a clearinghouse to
help get over some of those big hurdles that people
are expressing and truly giving them a choice.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
I mean, that's what this is all about.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Because they feel so trapped, right, I mean they feel
trapped when they come to see us. Nine out of
ten times, if you look at them and say you
are not alone, We're here to walk beside you, immediately
we see tears.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Yeah, because they feel so alone. Right.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
We even help them role play on how to talk
to their partner, how to talk to you. We had
a situation on how to talk to their parents. We
do role playing with them. We just give them the
dedicated time they need to process this information. One other
thing I didn't mention earlier is we do free STD
testing for women as well and treatment, and we follow
(07:31):
that up with STD counseling as well to kind of
educate and be like, why do we keep getting in
this situation?
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Right?
Speaker 3 (07:38):
What's going on behind you? Coming to see us so often?
Not ever a place from judgment. I can never judge anyone, right,
but from a place of love and hope. And we
want to help you find some answers.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Right right, And you know, I mean ultimately in my mind.
And I know it sounds a little patronizing, but helping
someone learn how to make better decisions when they've been
making the same wrong decision over and over and over again,
it's really a powerful medicine in and of itself. Yes,
So do you guys also offer well women care and
things of that nature?
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Or is this we are tilted towards it? Oh, we are.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
That is the long term goal. We are heading in
that direction. But we are funded by individuals. I am
over seventy five percent of our funding comes from individuals
and churches. So we do not receive any state or
federal funding and that makes it difficult. We have to
fund raise.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Why is that, without getting too deep into the weeds
on politics stuff, why is it that you do choose
not to take federal dollars because of the strings that
may be attached, or is it federal dollars are not
necessarily flowing towards organizations that are focused on life.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Well, the second one, for sure, they don't have many
flowing towards us. But secondly, a lot of times when
we apply for those, the second they find out we're
pro life, they don't want to work with us. And
I would also say a lot of times there's a
lot of hoops. I know some organizations that do receive
federal and state funding and they actually have to hire
another staff just to manage that, just for fulfillment.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
And then there's all kinds of every every piece of
tax money that is given out comes with strings. Absolutely,
and maybe they're they're blatant strings, but maybe they are
just pressure, or maybe they're pressure that doesn't even appear
for years.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Yes, right as.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Things change or shift.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
What are you guys seeing?
Speaker 1 (09:28):
And mentioned it right at the beginning of the interview,
and I'm talking right now with Ashley Graves from the
Alternative's Pregnancy Center. Colorado is a staunchly pro choice state.
They have indicated it over and over and over and
over and over again at the ballot box.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
There's no question about it.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
So I have often told my listeners who are frustrated
pro lifers who believe that a child is a child,
no matter if it's a you know, little tiny zeyegoat
child or a nine month old child that's ready to
be born. This is the kind of stuff that I
would love to have you direct your time and energy
and your money to, because the only way to slow
(10:05):
down the rate of abortion anywhere is to let women
know that there are alternatives.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
You know, what are you guys seeing just on the
landscape in terms of you know, do you feel like
people's hearts are changing at all? Because I try to
gauge it and it's so hard. I want to see
the window that I want to see the world through.
Right Where are you guys seeing this?
Speaker 3 (10:27):
I would say the younger generation behind us is looking
at it. My daughter's generation, they're twenty and twenty five.
They are seeing some of the after effects of abortion,
and especially the chemical abortion, yeah, and the trauma that
goes with that, and I think they're going to be
the generation to speak up and go, this is not okay.
This is actually doing more harm than good. And so
(10:51):
that is definitely I think the generations that are getting
more educated on the trauma. The abortion pill brings a
lot of trauma with it, and we don't need to
get to that, but it does.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
It's a very dramatic process, and people think it's no
big deal. I'm going to take this, and you know,
I don't know what they think is going to happen,
but it's a very dramatic process. It's not just a
no big deal type thing as it's often made out
to be. I don't know, So, Ashley, how did you
get into this field?
Speaker 3 (11:22):
Honestly, I have always discipled young women. I've always walked
beside young women. I don't have the prettiest testimony. I
don't have the prettiest backstory, and there wasn't someone to
walk with me. And so we ended up in an
area and the pregnancy Resource center needed a director and
my husband was the one that said, you have to
apply for this. This is for young women, this is you.
(11:43):
And that's what I love about what we do because
to me, it's.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Pro woman right, it's empowering women.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
And I was an executive director in Texas for over
eight years and then I stepped out and became a
consultant to pregnancy resource centers because we were losing so
many leaders due to burnout, right exhaustion, all the things.
And then a recruiter found me here for Denver and
I'm never in a million years thought I would leave
(12:10):
Texas for Denver, Colorado. But my husband and I have
a saying you go until you get a no, and
we just kept getting a yes after a yes. And
now in September eleventh, they'll be here a full year.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
That's fantastic. That's absolutely fantastic. You know, when you are
talking with young women, and you're obviously talking with young women,
maybe not you directly, but the people you have a
lot of different counselors and things of that nature. When
you're talking to these young women. I mean, I can
only imagine the fear that must come across. How do
you say to someone, I'm too scared to do this.
(12:44):
It's too frightening. There's too many barriers in my way.
How do you say on a one to one basis, Like,
what do you say to someone to say, I really
think you should have this baby. It's your choice, but
you got to you know, thinking over.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
We actually say tell us what the obstacles are, so
we you will never hear one of our advocates say
we think you should do this right, that's never going
to come out of our mouth.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
But I will say, by and large, we're seeing housing
that's a that's the biggest one.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
It's probably the largest one of how can I have
another child? I'm currently sleeping in my car or I'm
sleeping on someone's couch.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
How can I have a child?
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Housing is a huge one, and so we look into
that and we're like, you know what, we partner with
some incredible organizations. Let's see if we can help you
find how I.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Don't know if you guys partner with Catholic charities, but
I've seen their facility that they have for young you know,
moms and kids, and they stay for years there until
they can really get their feet under them, and it's
just such an impressive operation. And all of this stuff
kind of flies under the radar. And I think part
of it is because unfortunately this is so contentious, right,
it shouldn't be. This should be a no brainer, like
(13:52):
why shouldn't we want women to have baby? I just
I don't understand why. It's it's such a hateful conversation sometimes,
But I got a couple of ways. I don't want
to get too long without talking about the gala and
the golf tournament and everything else. You guys are bringing
in a well known pro life advocate who has been
very open with his mom about the fact that he
(14:15):
was counseled. His mom was counseled to have an abortion
and she just said no. And that guy is Tim Tebow. Yes,
tell me about him coming into town.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
He is going to be here September fourteenth for a
gala out at the Gaylord Rockies Convention Center, and we
are going to have a live auction. You can even
buy table sponsorships to get into a VIP meet and
greet with Tim Tebow. And we had someone contact our
development director and said, what do I have to do
to meet Tim?
Speaker 2 (14:42):
He said, well, do I have a package for you?
Speaker 3 (14:45):
Yeah, So he will be there on Sunday night for
that event, and then the next day we are hosting
a golf tournament and he is going to be at
Cherry Creek Country Club. They have partnered with us and
that's fantastic playing golf. We only have three foursomes still
available for that. So the golf tournament is almost sold out,
(15:06):
but we still have tables for the galab.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Well, I have all of this information on the blog today.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
The gala is Sunday, September fourteenth, so it's in a couple
of weeks at six pm at the Gaylord Hotel.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
How much your tickets for that?
Speaker 3 (15:19):
A table is twenty and twenty two hundred and fifty dollars,
an individual seat is two hundred and twenty five.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Okay, so that is for that, and you got four
I'm pulling up the fundraising on the website really quick,
and you only have four foursomes for the golf Is
it three seventy five or person?
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Yes? Okay, I'm looking right now. Just makes sure so
you probably won't go ahead and do that now.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
Yes, if you want to play the golf tournament, Like
I said, Tim's going to be walking around, He's going
to spend the entire day with us. Get on there today.
Let's get it sold out.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
I have a couple of people that are texting in
right now. By the way, if you love what you're
hearing and you want to support this, you can say,
set up a five dollars a month donation. You can
set up a ten dollar a month donation. You can
set up a one time donation for five million dollars.
You do whatever you.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Want to do.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
I mean, I just feel really good about making that
last offer.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
In case Steve, I don't think like that. I just
want to plant that seed.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
So whatever you can do, you can participate, you know,
and you could do this, or you could just give
a little money. Here's a couple of stories I want
to share though. I think it's fascinating. Mandy twenty six
years ago, my wife and I were forty years old,
found out we were pregnant unplanned. We had an abortion
appointment set up in the twelfth hour. I changed my
mind and it took a lot of prayers and counsel
with my wife to talk or into having the baby.
(16:37):
Put a real strain between us. We had three children
already went through with the pregnancy, and we have a
beautiful adult woman now. I had to step up to
the plate and do most of the parenting on the
fourth child. Our marriage didn't survive, but I'm glad we
didn't abort this one. As an adoptee born during the
early days of Roe versus Wade. Thank you for bringing
(16:57):
on a guest who shows actual voices and not a
single agenda. So yes, as a guy, this guy says,
I love this group, but it's hard to have a
position on abortion. It's really not you, guys, it's really
not one of my I think one of the most
unfair things in the world are that women have to
(17:19):
do the brunt of growing.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
That baby, because it's really hard.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
But it's also unfair because men don't get the really
cool stuff about having a baby, little feet kicking from
the inside. Dude, there's literally nothing in the world like it.
It's amazing. But men should also get a say.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Well, and I can speak to in my previous clinic,
there was one summer we had three young men different
pregnancy tests. All three of them were literally wailing in
our waiting room because she was determined to get an
abortion and he had no rights. He offered to support,
he offered to provide a place to live, he offered
(17:56):
for his parents to do it. In all three incidences,
and a man has literally no say.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
That's just really, really sad it is.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Alternatives Pregnancy Center is the place you want to put
a link to all of this on the blog today.
I so appreciate you, Ashley Graves and everyone involved with this,
because it's really irritating to me when I hear people,
and I hear this from friends of mine who are
so staunchly pro choice to the moment of birth that
they don't even want to hear that there are actual
(18:26):
organizations who help and support women, not just in making
that decision, but also throughout the pregnancy, after the baby
is born, and helping people get a start on life.
They exist, but they only exist because we support them.
So yes, thank you so much for coming in today.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Thank you. You guys are going to.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Have an amazing event. Emma tell Tim, I said, Hi,
I will
In the studio with me now is the executive director
of an organization that I want you to pay attention
to because we've talked about on the show before that Colorado,
like it or not, is a pro choice state.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Okay, full stop.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
There's no polling day to the shows that it is
anything but a majority pro choice state. Does that mean
if your pro life you should just throw in the
towel and just call it a day.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
No, it doesn't.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
But it means that any time energy or effort you
spend trying to limit abortion in Colorado is going to
be wasted.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
The only way to.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Limit abortion in Colorado is to give women an alternative
that would support them in a pregnancy that maybe they
were not prepared for. And that's why I have Ashley
Graves in the studio with me right now from Alternatives
Pregnancy Center.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
First of all, Ashley, welcome to the show. Thank you
very much. I'm glad to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Well, I'm glad to have you, and I honestly vaguely
familiar with the Alternatives Pregnancy Center, mostly because things that
listeners have sent me. We have people that are listening audience,
we have a lot of pro choice people are at
our listening audience. We have a lot of pro life
people in our listening audience, and even I would think
that a vast majority of the pro choice people in
this listening audience would love to think that when truly
(01:11):
do have a choice right, that it's not just the
choice part only means choosing an abortion. So tell me
a little bit about what Alternatives Pregnancy Center does what
you provide, and not just about abortion.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
You guys do a whole bunch of stuff. Tell me
about that absolutely.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
So we walk beside women and men that find themselves
in the complexity of an unplaned pregnancy. And like our
doctor's appointments are our nurse appointments, they're an hour long.
When was the last time you went to a doctor
and you got an hour long appointment? And we sit
with them and we look at the whole human being,
the whole person mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. What is
(01:50):
going on? How can we walk with them? We show
them there's other alternatives. We don't beat them into a decision,
We love on them, We give them infirmation.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
The other thing that honestly.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
A lot of pro choice people have supported is we
walk beside them till the baby's a year old. We
do mentoring, We have fatherhood mentoring. Wow, like that's been huge.
And then we also have counseling after abortion, and that
those pieces, even pro choice people can't be upset about
(02:22):
because we're still walking with these individuals.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
We don't drop them off.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
We still love on them, and if they choose to
have an abortion, we still love them. We want them
to have counseling, healing all of them.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
You have them to be making an informed choice, absolutely,
and that is something And I've never had to make
this decision, and I'm very grateful that I never found
myself in this position. But boy do I know a
lot of women that have found themselves in this position.
And in my friend group, I have women who have
made all different choices. I have had women who decided,
(02:54):
I'm gonna have this baby, I'm gonna keep this baby.
I have friends who have decided I'm gonna have this
baby and give it to a family that can provide
about her home. And I have friends that have chosen
to have an abortion. But what I find the most
striking is that all of them, at some point have
talked about that decision. And the two that actually gave
(03:15):
birth to that baby. Have never regretted it. And I'm
not saying every friend I have who's had an abortion
regrets it. That would be inaccurate, that would be a lie.
But the friends that have had it, more than one
has said later that was the worst choice ever made, right,
But they.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Didn't feel like they had a choice, and they maybe
didn't feel like there's someone to listen or someone to
talk out the process with, or maybe even ten years
down the road, did they find someone to talk with.
I personally was counseled to abort my oldest child. She
was testing high for Down syndrome right and we were
at Texas Tech Medical Center and in genetic counseling, and
(03:54):
she said, we're giving you this information and so you
have the information in case you and to terminate their pregnancy.
And my husband and I looked at her in complete shock.
And then we go for the next set of testing.
They offered us termination yet again. And if she would
have been Down syndrome, we would have loved her completely
and totally. That she has come out this genius and
(04:16):
this amazing woman of like that we would have missed.
We would have missed her voice.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Because I was of advanced maternal age when I had
my daughter, and my husband was five years older than
I was. In our first meeting with our midwife, they said, okay,
do you want to do genetic testing? And I said, well,
you know, I in the course of this, if we
find out there's something severely wrong, we can talk. But
if we have a child with Down syndrome, we've already
talked about it because we're older and we're okay with
(04:42):
that and we don't want to hear about termination again.
And our doctors, to their credit, said, no problem, marked
it down, said we're not going to talk about this again.
But there is a tremendous amount of pressure now and
those tests are not always accurate.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
They are not they have and then I've heard recently
they're like, ashulely, the tests are better. But a young
woman that I've walked beside since she was fifteen years old,
she in the last two years got a false positive
and I'm like.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
They're not that much better. You can't just trust that information.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
So yeah, now, when someone comes to the Alternative's pregnancy Center,
walk me through that process. I've always thought, and maybe
I'm wrong about this, are people that tend to gravitate
towards a place called Alternatives Pregnancy Center. Maybe they're already
questioning if they're going to walk that path on abortion.
Maybe they want to be talked out of it.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Right? Is that accurate? Not always?
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Sometimes they come in very determined, like they have already
made their mind.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
A they want an abortion, Okay.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
They come to us, We sit them down and we
do a medical grade pregnancy test with our ns, and
we talk through what's going on in your life right now?
What are you feeling, what is happening? Why are you
feeling anxiety about this right now? We find out a
lot of information, and it's amazing how often we open
(06:02):
the door for additional resources they didn't know they could get.
We are experts on what's available in the counties and
what resources are available to them.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
A lot of them.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
It may be I don't have housing, How can I
have this baby?
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Right?
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Let us open the door to some organizations that can help.
My partner is abusing me, How can I have this baby?
We aren't experts on domestic violence, but we know who is. Yeah,
and that is our goal to know who are the
experts that can walk with these women and empower them
so they don't feel so trapped.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
And a lot of people just in general don't recognize
or realize how many organizations exist, and our organizations like
you that can kind of act as a clearinghouse to
help get over some of those big hurdles that people
are expressing and truly giving them a choice.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
I mean, that's what this is all about.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Because they feel so trapped, right, I mean they feel
trapped when they come to see us. Nine out of
ten times, if you look at them and say you
are not alone, We're here to walk beside you, immediately
we see tears.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Yeah, because they feel so alone. Right.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
We even help them role play on how to talk
to their partner, how to talk to you. We had
a situation on how to talk to their parents. We
do role playing with them. We just give them the
dedicated time they need to process this information. One other
thing I didn't mention earlier is we do free STD
testing for women as well and treatment, and we follow
(07:31):
that up with STD counseling as well to kind of
educate and be like, why do we keep getting in
this situation?
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Right?
Speaker 3 (07:38):
What's going on behind you? Coming to see us so often?
Not ever a place from judgment. I can never judge anyone, right,
but from a place of love and hope. And we
want to help you find some answers.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Right right, And you know, I mean ultimately in my mind.
And I know it sounds a little patronizing, but helping
someone learn how to make better decisions when they've been
making the same wrong decision over and over and over again,
it's really a powerful medicine in and of itself. Yes,
So do you guys also offer well women care and
things of that nature?
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Or is this we are tilted towards it? Oh, we are.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
That is the long term goal. We are heading in
that direction. But we are funded by individuals. I am
over seventy five percent of our funding comes from individuals
and churches. So we do not receive any state or
federal funding and that makes it difficult. We have to
fund raise.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Why is that, without getting too deep into the weeds
on politics stuff, why is it that you do choose
not to take federal dollars because of the strings that
may be attached, or is it federal dollars are not
necessarily flowing towards organizations that are focused on life.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Well, the second one, for sure, they don't have many
flowing towards us. But secondly, a lot of times when
we apply for those, the second they find out we're
pro life, they don't want to work with us. And
I would also say a lot of times there's a
lot of hoops. I know some organizations that do receive
federal and state funding and they actually have to hire
another staff just to manage that, just for fulfillment.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
And then there's all kinds of every every piece of
tax money that is given out comes with strings. Absolutely,
and maybe they're they're blatant strings, but maybe they are
just pressure, or maybe they're pressure that doesn't even appear
for years.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Yes, right as.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Things change or shift.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
What are you guys seeing?
Speaker 1 (09:28):
And mentioned it right at the beginning of the interview,
and I'm talking right now with Ashley Graves from the
Alternative's Pregnancy Center. Colorado is a staunchly pro choice state.
They have indicated it over and over and over and
over and over again at the ballot box.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
There's no question about it.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
So I have often told my listeners who are frustrated
pro lifers who believe that a child is a child,
no matter if it's a you know, little tiny zeyegoat
child or a nine month old child that's ready to
be born. This is the kind of stuff that I
would love to have you direct your time and energy
and your money to, because the only way to slow
(10:05):
down the rate of abortion anywhere is to let women
know that there are alternatives.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
You know, what are you guys seeing just on the
landscape in terms of you know, do you feel like
people's hearts are changing at all? Because I try to
gauge it and it's so hard. I want to see
the window that I want to see the world through.
Right Where are you guys seeing this?
Speaker 3 (10:27):
I would say the younger generation behind us is looking
at it. My daughter's generation, they're twenty and twenty five.
They are seeing some of the after effects of abortion,
and especially the chemical abortion, yeah, and the trauma that
goes with that, and I think they're going to be
the generation to speak up and go, this is not okay.
This is actually doing more harm than good. And so
(10:51):
that is definitely I think the generations that are getting
more educated on the trauma. The abortion pill brings a
lot of trauma with it, and we don't need to
get to that, but it does.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
It's a very dramatic process, and people think it's no
big deal. I'm going to take this, and you know,
I don't know what they think is going to happen,
but it's a very dramatic process. It's not just a
no big deal type thing as it's often made out
to be. I don't know, So, Ashley, how did you
get into this field?
Speaker 3 (11:22):
Honestly, I have always discipled young women. I've always walked
beside young women. I don't have the prettiest testimony. I
don't have the prettiest backstory, and there wasn't someone to
walk with me. And so we ended up in an
area and the pregnancy Resource center needed a director and
my husband was the one that said, you have to
apply for this. This is for young women, this is you.
(11:43):
And that's what I love about what we do because
to me, it's.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Pro woman right, it's empowering women.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
And I was an executive director in Texas for over
eight years and then I stepped out and became a
consultant to pregnancy resource centers because we were losing so
many leaders due to burnout, right exhaustion, all the things.
And then a recruiter found me here for Denver and
I'm never in a million years thought I would leave
(12:10):
Texas for Denver, Colorado. But my husband and I have
a saying you go until you get a no, and
we just kept getting a yes after a yes. And
now in September eleventh, they'll be here a full year.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
That's fantastic. That's absolutely fantastic. You know, when you are
talking with young women, and you're obviously talking with young women,
maybe not you directly, but the people you have a
lot of different counselors and things of that nature. When
you're talking to these young women. I mean, I can
only imagine the fear that must come across. How do
you say to someone, I'm too scared to do this.
(12:44):
It's too frightening. There's too many barriers in my way.
How do you say on a one to one basis, Like,
what do you say to someone to say, I really
think you should have this baby. It's your choice, but
you got to you know, thinking over.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
We actually say tell us what the obstacles are, so
we you will never hear one of our advocates say
we think you should do this right, that's never going
to come out of our mouth.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
But I will say, by and large, we're seeing housing
that's a that's the biggest one.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
It's probably the largest one of how can I have
another child? I'm currently sleeping in my car or I'm
sleeping on someone's couch.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
How can I have a child?
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Housing is a huge one, and so we look into
that and we're like, you know what, we partner with
some incredible organizations. Let's see if we can help you
find how I.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Don't know if you guys partner with Catholic charities, but
I've seen their facility that they have for young you know,
moms and kids, and they stay for years there until
they can really get their feet under them, and it's
just such an impressive operation. And all of this stuff
kind of flies under the radar. And I think part
of it is because unfortunately this is so contentious, right,
it shouldn't be. This should be a no brainer, like
(13:52):
why shouldn't we want women to have baby? I just
I don't understand why. It's it's such a hateful conversation sometimes,
But I got a couple of ways. I don't want
to get too long without talking about the gala and
the golf tournament and everything else. You guys are bringing
in a well known pro life advocate who has been
very open with his mom about the fact that he
(14:15):
was counseled. His mom was counseled to have an abortion
and she just said no. And that guy is Tim Tebow. Yes,
tell me about him coming into town.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
He is going to be here September fourteenth for a
gala out at the Gaylord Rockies Convention Center, and we
are going to have a live auction. You can even
buy table sponsorships to get into a VIP meet and
greet with Tim Tebow. And we had someone contact our
development director and said, what do I have to do
to meet Tim?
Speaker 2 (14:42):
He said, well, do I have a package for you?
Speaker 3 (14:45):
Yeah, So he will be there on Sunday night for
that event, and then the next day we are hosting
a golf tournament and he is going to be at
Cherry Creek Country Club. They have partnered with us and
that's fantastic playing golf. We only have three foursomes still
available for that. So the golf tournament is almost sold out,
(15:06):
but we still have tables for the galab.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Well, I have all of this information on the blog today.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
The gala is Sunday, September fourteenth, so it's in a couple
of weeks at six pm at the Gaylord Hotel.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
How much your tickets for that?
Speaker 3 (15:19):
A table is twenty and twenty two hundred and fifty dollars,
an individual seat is two hundred and twenty five.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Okay, so that is for that, and you got four
I'm pulling up the fundraising on the website really quick,
and you only have four foursomes for the golf Is
it three seventy five or person?
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Yes? Okay, I'm looking right now. Just makes sure so
you probably won't go ahead and do that now.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
Yes, if you want to play the golf tournament, Like
I said, Tim's going to be walking around, He's going
to spend the entire day with us. Get on there today.
Let's get it sold out.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
I have a couple of people that are texting in
right now. By the way, if you love what you're
hearing and you want to support this, you can say,
set up a five dollars a month donation. You can
set up a ten dollar a month donation. You can
set up a one time donation for five million dollars.
You do whatever you.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Want to do.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
I mean, I just feel really good about making that
last offer.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
In case Steve, I don't think like that. I just
want to plant that seed.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
So whatever you can do, you can participate, you know,
and you could do this, or you could just give
a little money. Here's a couple of stories I want
to share though. I think it's fascinating. Mandy twenty six
years ago, my wife and I were forty years old,
found out we were pregnant unplanned. We had an abortion
appointment set up in the twelfth hour. I changed my
mind and it took a lot of prayers and counsel
with my wife to talk or into having the baby.
(16:37):
Put a real strain between us. We had three children
already went through with the pregnancy, and we have a
beautiful adult woman now. I had to step up to
the plate and do most of the parenting on the
fourth child. Our marriage didn't survive, but I'm glad we
didn't abort this one. As an adoptee born during the
early days of Roe versus Wade. Thank you for bringing
(16:57):
on a guest who shows actual voices and not a
single agenda. So yes, as a guy, this guy says,
I love this group, but it's hard to have a
position on abortion. It's really not you, guys, it's really
not one of my I think one of the most
unfair things in the world are that women have to
(17:19):
do the brunt of growing.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
That baby, because it's really hard.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
But it's also unfair because men don't get the really
cool stuff about having a baby, little feet kicking from
the inside. Dude, there's literally nothing in the world like it.
It's amazing. But men should also get a say.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Well, and I can speak to in my previous clinic,
there was one summer we had three young men different
pregnancy tests. All three of them were literally wailing in
our waiting room because she was determined to get an
abortion and he had no rights. He offered to support,
he offered to provide a place to live, he offered
(17:56):
for his parents to do it. In all three incidences,
and a man has literally no say.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
That's just really, really sad it is.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Alternatives Pregnancy Center is the place you want to put
a link to all of this on the blog today.
I so appreciate you, Ashley Graves and everyone involved with this,
because it's really irritating to me when I hear people,
and I hear this from friends of mine who are
so staunchly pro choice to the moment of birth that
they don't even want to hear that there are actual
(18:26):
organizations who help and support women, not just in making
that decision, but also throughout the pregnancy, after the baby
is born, and helping people get a start on life.
They exist, but they only exist because we support them.
So yes, thank you so much for coming in today.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Thank you. You guys are going to.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Have an amazing event. Emma tell Tim, I said, Hi,
I will
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