Offering lifelines of hope when it's needed most, PROLIFE Across AMERICA has been dedicated to “changing hearts and saving babies’ lives” since 1989. Even if you haven’t heard of them, you likely have seen their work in action.
They are the pro-life “Billboard People,” sponsoring billboard ads across the United States — in every one of the 46 states that allows them. In 2025, they had 10,500 signs along interstate and rural highways, which generated over 6,000 inquiries for pro-life services. Their goal for 2026 is 11,000 billboards across the 46 states where they are allowed (although donations for their work come from all 50 states).
[See a photo gallery of some of the billboards at the end of this article.]
After 36 years, co-founder Mary Ann Kuharski has turned the reins over to her daughter, Angie Johnson. Angie, who literally has grown up alongside the organization her parents co-founded, praised her mother’s answer to “God’s call with courage and compassion, creating a legacy that has brought hope and support to countless women in need.”
One woman’s lifetime of pro-life advocacy
Rewind to 1970. Canada had recently passed a permissive abortion law and attempts to liberalize abortion laws in the U.S. were spreading. One phone call from a friend encouraged Mary Ann, then a young mother of two: “You should get involved in this — after all, you’re adopted. You could have been aborted!” the friend suggested.
That was the only nudge she needed. “I came from one of the last Catholic Charities orphanages in Minnesota,” Mary Ann, who was adopted at 9 months old, told Aleteia.
In 1972, she joined a Minnesota pro-life group and became very active in her state’s party politics and began speaking on pro-life issues. That same year she got involved with Birthright pregnancy support services and began serving as a volunteer counselor and speaker. She also helped Sr. Jeanne Therese Condon set up the first of multiple pregnancy support centers in the Twin Cities area, one of the oldest in the nation.
Mary Ann testified twice in Congress in support of adoption, now as a parent of adopted children. Her pro-life political activity and promotion of choices other than abortion brought some fiery responses.
Frustrated and fueled by a message of truth about the sanctity of life, Mary Ann, with her husband John and friends Mike and Dorothy Fleming, decided to do something more. PROLIFE MINNESOTA was born at the Kuharskis' kitchen table. “Our goal was to advertise the truth about the developing pre-born baby. We wanted our message to be so big it couldn’t be ignored.”
Fundraising at Catholic and other churches in Minnesota, their first set of 42 billboards was launched in 1989. The message: “A Baby is a Baby is a Baby… Listen to the heartbeat at 24 days from conception.”
“We had no office, no hotline, and no business phone number,” Mary Ann said. “Yet, two weeks after the first billboards went up, I received a call from a pro-life clinic director in St. Paul who said he knew I was the one behind the billboards.”
“You need to know it saved a baby’s life!” the friend shared. “A woman just walked into our office and said, ‘I’m scheduled for an abortion but came here because I couldn’t stand to drive by that billboard on my way to work and go through with the abortion.'”
And so it began – office space was rented and a 1-800 hotline number set up. Within six years — with donations and requests coming in from across the country — the Kuharskis moved forward to launch PROLIFE Across AMERICA as a 501 c(3) non-profit, non-political and educational organization.
Mary Ann noted that 90% of women who choose abortion admit they did it to please or protect someone else (boyfriend, parents, etc.). She also said that 40% of hotline callers are men. “Whether they are the baby’s father, father of the girl, a brother or uncle, you name it,” said Mary Ann, “men are natural providers and protectors. They care about both the mother and baby!”
Raising 13 children — six of whom are adopted, of mixed race and with special needs — Mary Ann’s personal experience attests to the role of an involved father and dependence on God the Father. She has written five books on the topics of “building a legacy of love, parenting, and prayer."
From lighting to passing the torch
Relying completely on donations, PROLIFE Across AMERICA has remained primarily focused on billboard outreach and online ads. They have explored, as funds allow, other advertising methods such as bus wraps, digital mobile billboard trucks, and college kiosks. All ads feature their 1-800 hotline that connects callers to 3,000 pregnancy centers. Some 700 calls come in every month.
Partnering with Heartbeat International and Optionline.org, these confidential calls offer information including about medical care, housing, adoption, and post-abortive assistance as well as general counseling and emotional support.
“Billboards have a staying power that can’t be beat,” Mary Ann emphasized. “It’s one of the oldest forms of advertising — and it’s subliminal. We see it, pass it quickly, but repetition gives us staying power.” She added that digital and radio ads are necessary, but for a non-profit with limited resources the billboards remain their most impactful and cost-effective method for reaching their goal, which has always been and still is: “To change hearts and save babies and mothers from the tragedy of abortion!”
“As a former political activist,” Mary Ann confessed, “I came to realize that unless, and until, we change hearts in America, we will never successfully change the laws to protect both the vulnerable mother and baby from succumbing to abortion.”
Now the president emerita of the organization, she has great admiration for the background and extensive experience her daughter Angie brings as the new president of PROLIFE Across AMERICA. “It’s also a personal blessing to have my own daughter as enthusiastic and passionate about this work as I am!”
“Angie has already streamlined and added new innovative outreaches that have increased our donor and support base, and best of all, increased our hotline and national visibility as never before,” Mary Ann said.
Angie noted that PROLIFE Across AMERICA considers itself “the marketing arm of the pro-life movement. So often a simple billboard, radio or internet ad may be the only sign of help and hope to someone experiencing an untimely pregnancy."
“We want to support the work of the pregnancy centers and educate the public because we know they are the voice around a woman when she’s making that decision. The more our culture can protect, serve and know the dignity of every human life, the more we can support moms who face an unexpected pregnancy," she said.
Gratefully celebrating the $267,000 raised just this month during their 29th annual fundraising event, Angie shared this quote from a recent hotline call:
“I had to call to say ‘Thank you’! Three years ago today, because of many circumstances, I was scheduled for an abortion. I drove by one of your billboards and when I read the message, it made me cry. In fact, I went back and took a photo to re-read the message. Today, I’m on my way to church with my 3½-year-old little girl, and I have you to thank for her!”
