Pregnancy Resouce Center hosts its annual banquet

Sally Loftus was giving her annual report to the Hi-Line Pregnancy Resource Center at the annual banquet Tuesday night.

She's the executive director of the organization that helps troubled women who are unexpectedly pregnant. Loftus and her volunteers help women understand options they face other than abortion.

Loftus talked about assuming her new role a few years ago and how she was a bit unsure of herself.

One day, as she was sitting at the resource center's table at the Great Northern Fair, a woman at a neighboring table whispered to her, asking if the resource center had services for women who were suffering trauma from the after-effects of abortion.

Yes, Loftus responded.

Later, Loftus approached the woman and asked her if she would like to talk further.

The woman said she was the person who had the abortion, more than 30 years earlier, and was still suffering trauma.

She handed the microphone over to Paula Brady, a  resource center volunteer.

As the audience sat in rapt attention, Brady said she had an abortion many years earlier.

As a young woman, she said, she was drank alcohol and took drugs. She had many boyfriends.

She found herself pregnant. She and her boyfriend thought they were not ready to have children, so she opted for an abortion.

Later, she and her boyfriend got married and had two children that she is very proud of today.

But It always haunted her - what would have become of her other child if she had not aborted it?

Being honest about her experience has helped her, Brady said, The support from resource center volunteers and others has been helpful, she said.

Brady's talk was one of the highlights of the annual banquet, which featured Christian comedian Brad Stine.

Stine, who has been a regular on Fox & Friends, had the audience in laughter for more than an hour.

He called his routine "pro-American, pro-Christian and anti-political correctness."

Stine said he was unfamiliar with Montana, and said he was pleased to be in Havre. He taunted the audience by pronouncing it "HAY-ver."

He took aim at federal bureaucrats, Congress, Planned Parenthood and other liberal organizations during his skit, keeping the audience in laughter.

But he turned serious at the end of his talk, pleading with people to donate to the resource center in its effort to get a medical van that will be able to go 200 miles to find women in remote areas who are looking for help in dealing with their pregnancies.

"They get calls from women in reservations 200 miles away," he said. "and they are heartbroken because they know they will never hear from them again."

The van will be supplied with sonograms and other devices to provide medical help to the women, he said.

People in the audience pulled out their checkbooks to make donations.

He said the van would have to be purchased through contributions.

"The government will be funding Planned Parenthood," he said.