The date June 24, 2023, marks one year since the United States Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade.
It came nearly 50 years after the high court made the right to an abortion the law of the land.
The ruling one year ago in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization didn't make abortion illegal. It put the question of its legality and limits back to each state in the Union.
ROE V. WADE OVERTURNED: REV. FRANKLIN GRAHAM, OTHERS REACT TO ‘SIGNIFICANT’ ABORTION RULING
"I remember the moment I heard," said Dr. John Bruchalski in a recent phone interview with Fox News.
"My wife and I were visiting our son-in-law and our grandchildren, our granddaughter, in The Woodlands, Texas, [last] June 24. And we were praying at Mass — and all of a sudden, my phone just blew up. People were calling and texting."
Bans on abortion at all stages of pregnancy, as of this week, exist in 14 states.
Other states such as California, New York, Colorado and most Democrat-controlled states, according to the Associated Press, "are positioning themselves as abortion safe havens."
Last year's decision thrust the abortion battle into a new phase, in which the opponents are more equally positioned legally.
For ardent abortion supporters, the change is a tragedy beyond measure.
For those who vehemently oppose abortion — the decision was an answer to years of fervent prayers.
Bruchalski is in that latter group.
Lest anyone, however, think he is a pro-life man with no clue as to what women endure in pregnancy or when giving birth — his personal story has changed thousands of lives.
Bruchalski is a walking, talking embodiment of the entirety of the debate over abortion.
As an internist, he performed abortions.
He believed it was a way to offer women the best health care possible.
His compassion for the poor and needy is what brought him into the medical field. But now he talks about how God was gracious enough to let him face a critical juncture early in his career, as those two worldviews — supporting abortion and opposing abortion, each passionate and unyielding in their stance — collided in him.
He experienced what one might call a self-quake. Just as in an earthquake, the foundations crumbled, and what he thought was something to hold onto and steady himself turned out to be not all that sturdy.
He knows all the arguments for the right to an abortion because be believed them.
He knows the reasons to oppose abortion, too, because he now lives them.
Bruchalski is founder and director of Tepeyac OB/GYN, "a pro-life, faith-based obstetrics and gynecology practice serving the metropolitan D.C., North Virginia and Maryland area."
He recounted his conversion from abortion doctor to pro-life medicine in his book, "Two Patients: My Conversion From Abortion to Life-Affirming Medicine."
APP CRASH DURING LENT LEADS HALLOW CEO TO HEAR GOD SAY, ‘GIVE UP AND LET ME HANDLE IT’
On an episode a few months ago of "Lighthouse Faith" podcast, he talked about the pivotal moment that split him in two, figuratively speaking.
It was 1989, and he was an internist at a hospital in Virginia.
In one examining room, a woman who was 22 weeks pregnant was trembling on the birthing bed. She was in pre-term labor — but at that gestational age, the baby lacked the lung development to survive outside the mother's womb, even with all the life-saving technology available then.
Bruchalski gave her some options to try to stop the contractions to give the baby a greater chance of survival.
He left the woman to check on another patient who was also pregnant, appearing perhaps to be five or six months along. Bruchalski said the woman was mumbling her responses.
From her reply to his initial questions, she was either 21 or 22 weeks pregnant.
In his book, Bruchalski explained how the woman's most direct words to him were, "I just want it out."
He took note that the woman wanted to terminate the pregnancy and began to proceed.
When he removed the baby from her body, something felt different. The fetus was heavier than most at that gestational stage, he said. So he put it on the scale.
As he described in his book, "The red numerals flashed 505 grams [17.8 ounces]."
The staff were required to resuscitate born-alive fetuses weighing over 500 grams.
"My stomach drops," wrote Bruchalski. "I lunge toward the emergency button to alert the neonatal intensive care unit and immediately turn on the warmer."
He realized the woman was further along than she admitted — maybe 24 weeks, maybe more.
The limit of viability was considered to be 24 weeks, "meaning abortion is illegal in Virginia after this point because the fetus would have at least a 50% chance of survival outside the womb."
HISPANIC FAITH COMMUNITY IN AMERICA: POLLS AND NUMBERS DON'T TELL THE WHOLE STORY
But the searing stab in his spirit came when the neonatologists on staff yelled at him, saying, "Stop giving me tumors, John! Stop treating these babies like they're tumors!"
Bruchalski's sincere desire to be a good doctor, to give women the best health care and listen to their needs — all of that came crashing down on him. He had heard the woman speak but hadn't listened to her heart.
"I believed her. And she wasn't an ideologue ... It was in her pain, in her brokenness, and the fact that she was probably in her maybe 50th relationship or 10th relationship that was bad and not loved. And she couldn't do this. She couldn't go through with this. And she was feeling that tension."
He realized that he hadn't asked her enough intake questions. He didn't find out about her.
Said Bruchalski, "When you decide the life of the child is based on the desire of the mother, guess what? I didn't take a good history."
Bruchalski's conversion started with the two women and their contrasting desires — and went from there. He continued a sort of double life, performing abortions during the day while also volunteering at a pregnancy help center.
But the next phase of his transformation came during a trip to the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico. It was there that he said the Virgin Mary spoke to him.
But he struggled to distinguish whether what he saw and heard was reality or his imagination.
Then, a later trip to Medjugorje, the cite of apparitions of the Virgin Mary since 1981 in Bosnia-Herzegovina, completed the conversion to his being a pro-life advocate and medical professional forever.
There, the message was loud and clear.
He recounted in the book, "What happened next is nearly indescribable. I saw an image of a man standing in front of me wearing a white robe, with wounds on his hands and feet. I got the sense that I was on holy ground and that Jesus had invited me here. He was seeking me."
Through a holy messenger, he said he was told, "Mary said three things: to be the best doctor you can be, always to see the poor and see them daily, and to follow the teachings of her Son's church."
On his return home, Bruchalski informed his supervising doctor that he would no longer be able to perform abortions.
He knew this would mean a much lower salary and that his career options would be limited.
But his conversion to "life-affirming medicine" would not waver.
That is why the name of his clinic is Tepeyac. It's the site where tradition holds that Saint Juan Diego met the Virgin of Guadalupe.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
One year after Roe, Bruchalski said he believes the real struggle will not be in the courts.
It's not about winning legal battles.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTER
Said Bruchalski, "You have to change the human heart where children become wanted … and that women deserve integrated compassionate care."
Bruchalski said he is no longer devoted to a cause — but to serving Christ, the risen savior, whose blessed mother appeared to him in Mexico and Medjugorye.
