Fresno State pro-life activists were invited to a rally for President Donald Trump in early January, where they met the president and shared their personal stories in front of a large crowd.
“It was an honor to be chosen to speak at the event, and it was an amazing experience,” said Bernadette Tasy, the former president of Fresno State’s anti-abortion group, Students For Life.
Tasy and Jessica Riojas, the current vice president of Students For Life, were invited to King Jesus International Ministry, a megachurch in Miami, to speak on Jan. 3. The event was the launch of the Evangelicals for Trump coalition.
Riojas, 26, told the story about how she chose life for her daughter, and how she credits the Students For Life organization for changing her stance on abortion.
Riojas, a graduate student studying speech pathology, said she happened to be walking by a Students for Life table about three years ago and saw a model of a fetus.
“I just took one and I put one in my car,” she said. “All of a sudden a couple weeks later, I find out I’m pregnant.”
Riojas was planning on getting an abortion.
“I thought this would be the best way,” she said. “I thought having an abortion was going to fix everything.”
But she looked at the baby model in her car every day, and that changed her mind.
“The model helped me humanize my daughter,” she said.
Today, her daughter Eden is two years old and Riojas is the vice president of Students For Life at Fresno State. Eden was able to watch her mom give her speech in Florida on TV.
Riojas said when she received the email inviting her to speak at the rally, she thought it might be a prank.
“I didn’t believe it,” she said. “Me, coming from the Central Valley? My words and my story were cared about by the president of the United States?”
Tasy, who graduated with her master’s degree, now heads the young adult movement, Fresno Pro-Life Future.
She spoke at the event about her struggles with free speech at Fresno State. A court found a professor who wiped out anti-abortion chalk messages from the group in 2017 to be in the wrong, and Tasy said the group continues to battle to be heard.
“Though we face several struggles, we know that our fight is worth it,” she said. “Stories like Jessica’s help to remind us that our work changes hearts and minds and saves lives.”
The two were able to meet Trump before the rally and take a photo with him.
Staff contacted Tasy and Riojas about a week before the rally, and they underwent background checks before they were flown to Florida, Riojas said.
Riojas said she was nervous because she didn’t realize how many people were going to be at the rally, but she was proud to tell the world about her daughter.
“It feels so exciting as a mom talking about your daughter and your kid,” she said. “Everyone was so happy that I chose life.”