Radical Feminist to Pro-Life Advocate - Sara Huff's story

“Don’t look in the toilet.” That warning sits at the center of one of the most intense personal stories we’ve shared. Sara Huff did look and then could never unsee it. 

This week we talk with Sara Huff, who shares how trauma, homelessness, and a promise of “empowerment” pulled her into high-profile feminist activism and a push for abortion. Her chemical abortion experience, medical crisis, and recovery reshape her view of life, faith, and the real options women deserve when pregnancy feels impossible.

Her message to women facing an unplanned pregnancy: you are not out of options, and you do not have to do this alone.
 
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Transcript

A Teaser That Changes Everything

Sara Huff 0:03

They told me many times, don't look in the toilet. They told me many times it wasn't a human being, it wasn't a baby. And of course, I did look in the toilet. And what I saw it was not a blob of cells. It was not a blood clot. What I saw it was my own daughter. And there was nothing I could do. And I was so shocked. I wasn't feeling empowered. I was feeling like a murderer.

Sara Huff 0:26

Meet Sarah Huff And Her Turn

Victor Nieves 0:47

Today, she is a powerful pro-life advocate. Welcome to Straight Talk on Life Issues. I'm Victor Nieves, president of Life Issues Institute. Today we'll hear how Sarah Huff went from a radical feminist to a pro-life advocate. She's an international speaker, an author, and pro-life advocate. She's also the founder of a nonprofit dedicated to equipping parents to protect their children from harmful ideologies and to strengthen family life. Well, Sarah, thank you so much for joining us today.

Sara Huff 1:17

Absolutely.

Victor Nieves 1:33

You know Sara you have such an amazing story and for anybody who may not know it, I don't want to share your story for you, but it's incredible, truly. I think the best place for us to start today, if you would be so kind, tell us the story of your life.

Sara Huff 1:42

Thank you again, Victor, for this amazing opportunity. I will be more than happy to share a little bit

Growing Up With Violence And Loss

Sara Huff 1:48

of my story. As y'all can nowadays, I have a little bit of an accent. I am born and raised in Brazil. I've been living here in America for two years so far. I married a Texan. Howdy, everybody. And uh I was born in the countryside of São Paulo State in Brazil. I came from a very dysfunctional family. My parents, they're Christians. Mom is Catholic, dad is uh evangelical Christian, so I grew up with a large phase of Christianity, let's feel like that. But unfortunately, I have two older brothers, but unfortunately, the middle brother he got involved with narcos and drug dealers and cartels at a young age, and he brought so much pain for our family. You know, I'm sure many families that are hearing us right now know someone who was, you know, doing drugs or involved with this kind of situation. It was very hard to grow up like that. He will come home under drug effects and he will abuse us a lot. I mean, uh, he will beat us up. My mom, my dad, me. It was really, really hard. He was 10 years older than me. So while he wasn't already an adult, I was just a child. So I grew up with this sense of injustice in my heart because I couldn't understand why all my friends' families, why were they happy, but I wasn't. So I couldn't understand, especially coming from a Christian background and going to church every Sunday. I couldn't understand his narrative. The church was teaching me that God is good, God is love, God loves me as a beloved daughter. Well, if he loves me, why I am suffering like that? And so around 14, 15 years old, I just quit church. I quit Christianity, I quit everything, and I was very angry with everything, let's put like that. And the age of 16, unfortunately, my brother kicked me out of my house and I started to live with some relatives. But I ended up at the streets really soon. And uh the streets I started to sell my body for food. I became in prostitution at the age of 16, selling my body for food, for places to sleep, for clothes. But I didn't want to quit my education, so I kept pursuing my high school. That was my dream at the time, graduating high school, because no one of my family graduated high school. So I at least I wanted to do that. And I ended up completely exploited, raped. It was just really hard. So I was almost 18 and I was already hating God, I was hating man, and I was hating the family institution. And it

The Feminist Movement Becomes A Home

Sara Huff 4:21

was in this context of my life that I found out about the feminist movement through media, through news, and I didn't have any idea what was that. But I look at the pictures of those women, they were so different, they were young, they were holding posters, and they were, you know, with a such a strong, independent narrative and even posing for pictures in a very independent way. I didn't know what was that, but I fell in love only by the pictures and the protesting because I was so tired to being the victim. And then I went on Google, of course, and to research what feminism was. And it was, you know, this beautiful propaganda that it's about empowerment, fight against violence against women, exploitation, rape culture. So everything that in that moment I was leaving on my own flesh. I literally thought, maybe if I join them, maybe if I become this feminist thing, I'm no longer going to suffer. I'm no longer gonna be a victim of all that. So I sent in a message, this group located in Ukraine at the time. That was 2011, and I fell in love with this protest in East Europe and I was in Brazil, completely different location, people. I mean, and they interviewed me for a couple of weeks and then they granted me a passport, tickets, and I ended up in the year 2012 going to Ukraine for a feminist, activist, liberal, progressive boot camp. And I thought it would be only me, but when I got there, there was a bunch of other women, I will say around 40 other women, young women from every country that you can possibly think, including America. America, Mexico, Argentina, the UK, Netherlands, Germany, and go on. I mean, and we were severely brainwashed. Every single day, they will make us do weird things with a purpose to deconstruct our identity and build another one. They will constantly tell us that we were no longer individuals, that now we were a mass of a big revolution, that now we were soldiers of a culture war, and we were allowed to do everything that we could possibly think to bring up a new world, a world with respect and cherish for women, LGBT people, migrants, everybody, like minorities. And I thought, wow, awesome! I was just a prostitute with no family completely exploited, and now I am an agent, a revolutionary agent that's gonna change the world for a better place. Wow. So I was really happy, I was really excited for the first time. Many years now I had friends, I had uh a family, I had something to follow, I had something to fight for, and I was very excited. And these people, they sent us all the way back to our countries, and they had all the mass media with them. I mean, I just landed in Brazil and I was a completely unknown person, and then I was super famous, and I became the most relevant feminist in my country, and I was booked for shows on radio, TV, every like every other day. I was in the biggest shows, I was on college campuses, and also I was receiving orders from my team in Ukraine telling me what to do, what to protest about. And of course, this was a very professional activism job. So they will pay me, they will fund me, they will fund the organization around the world, and that's what I was living in the first two years. We were focusing on deconstruct Christianity through this feminist women empowerment and sexual revolution through the media and college campuses and street protests, and uh, and then the following years we started to focus more on abortion because in Brazil abortion is illegal, and uh they wanted to start this first, so our strategy it was like dehumanize and desensitize people talking bad about Christianity and then bring the abortion topic. So that's what we was doing, and I truly sometimes I look behind Victor and uh it's just wow, all I wanna is to help women, and looking back, none of my actions make sense. I wasn't helping anybody, but I was so convinced, I was so brainwashed that all this the legalization of abortion, making abortion legal, making women free, I was so sure that that will make women happy. So I put everything I had in my heart, in my strength to that fight.

Pregnancy Meets Abortion Pill Pressure

Sara Huff 9:14

And when I turned 22 years old, I actually got pregnant. And I asked all my feminist friends, well now what do I do? Because I don't want to have a baby. A baby just simply doesn't fit in my life right now. And they said, What are you talking about? Whatever is inside your belly is not a baby, is not a human being, it's not no, this is just a blob of cells, this is just a blood clot, this is nothing, it's not a baby, you don't have to worry about that. And they offered me to have a chemical abortion, and I was, but abortion is not legal here in Brazil. But you know, celebrities, rich people, they have easy access to that abortion pill. We know that they are everywhere in the world. There is this huge trafficking web around the world just shipping abortion pills anywhere. And I'm not sure how aware Americans are about that. But this is uh it's very curious. Not only in Brazil, but Latin America or any third world country, we look up to America so much, Victor. It's like, wow, this is the most amazing country in the world. That's why everybody wants to come here. So poor country is like the country I came from. Everything that it's from America, it is so special. Like, if I go back to Brazil now and I just bring a skincare or a Mac lipstick for my friends, they will cherish that because it's from America. So one of the things that pushed me to have that abortion, it was that doctor saying that she was constantly, like every six months, coming to the US to receive training with Planned Parenthood and to get the abortion pills here. And she said, Well, this is so American, like this is part of every single woman in America. Abortion is legal for almost 50 years there. This is part of American culture. Like, we there are not Americans. We think, well, if American people are doing that, if American women are doing that, that might be cool, that might be trend, that might be safe. So this is something that I really wanted to share because the US is such an amazing country, but Americans, they must be aware how much they influence the rest of the world and culture and everything. I'm not saying that it's America's fault that I had an abortion. Absolutely not. I take accountability for that, but I'm saying that it definitely weighted on my decision, the fact that she kept saying that this is part of American life. And who doesn't want to be like an American? Like, it's just awesome. I've been living here for two years so far, and I love America. I do understand now why this is the country everybody wants to come to, you know? So they taught me how to use and how to take the abortion pills, and they told me that it was like Tylenol, that it was just like a migraine pill, like uh ibuprofen. And they said that it will feel a little bit of a menstrual cramps, but nothing serious. And that's the same narrative that they push to American women as well, and that's absolutely not true. And for me, as a foreigner, as a an immigrant, I don't understand how abortion pills can be legal. How can they just ship that to your mailbox and tell you that you will be fine because the same medication I took like almost 13 years ago is the same medication that young American women they're still taking. And I didn't feel a simple menstrual cramp. I went through delivery pain, birth contractions, but no one from the abortion industry will tell you that. That you will feel like giving birth, that you will actually give birth because that baby that is inside your belly, he will need to get out of there. And there's no other way if you're taking a chemical abortion pill, so it will hurt. It was an excruciating pain that I was absolutely not aware about it. So it was really scary. And I guess when just started, I regret it. I regret it. But at that time, I never heard about the reversal pill. I don't even think that it was something at that time. I can 100% say that if that was an option for me, I would have taken. But unfortunately, it wasn't.

Victor Nieves 13:36

Sarah, I'm curious. So your story is amazing. It sounds though, going back to this radical feminist, almost like a militant feminist group that you found yourself a part of, it sounds like in the immediate, they sort of gave you everything that you wanted. You went from on the streets to now you're famous. I mean, like you said, you were the face of the feminist movement in Brazil, that you were fame and all of the shows and all of these things that you could ever ask for. What was it that changed your mind? What was it that snapped you out of that? Was it this abortion experience?

Sara Huff 14:08

The abortion experience was a big part of that because I couldn't trust them anymore. And I will tell you why. They told me it wouldn't hurt. It hurt it, it was probably the biggest pain I ever felt in my entire life. And again, this is the same education American women are still taking. And they told me many times, don't look in the toilet, don't look in the toilet. They told me many times it wasn't a human being, it wasn't a baby.

Looking In The Toilet Afterward

Sara Huff 14:35

And of course, I did look in the toilet. And what I saw, it was not a blob of cells, it was not a blood clot. What I saw, it was my own daughter, and there was nothing I could do. And I was so shocked and so guilty. I wasn't feeling empowered, I was feeling like a murder. That's not what feminism promised me. And then they said that it will be bleeding for a couple of days, but I kept bleeding severely for multiple days, and they were like, it's fine, that's normal. And I kept bleeding and bleeding, and like 10 days after that, I woke up in the middle of the night and I was bleeding so heavily. I was running fever, I was throwing up, the tip of my fingers were turning blue, my lips were like green. The pain that I was feeling inside me, it was burning almost like I had a piece of hell inside of me. Even the smell that was coming out of my body was just intolerable. It was just rotten. And I knew something was wrong because the pain was so hard that I couldn't even get out of my bed. So I started to call all my feminist friends, like 7, 8, 9, 9. And some they never answered. Some said, Don't worry, we are on our way. We're gonna take you to the hospital, we're gonna take care of you. And I waited, Victor. I waited one hour, two hours. I was passing out, waking up, passing out, waking up. They never came. Oh no. They literally let me to die. And the only one who actually heard my screamings, it was my neighbor. And he had to kick my apartment door down to actually save my life.

Sepsis, Abandonment, And Unexpected Rescue

Sara Huff 16:23

He just grabbed me with his wife, put me into the car, and drove me to the hospital. And I used to hate that man. You know why, Victor? Because he was a white male Christian. And I was living in that condo for um six months, and I couldn't stand him. First, because he had five kids at that time, and I couldn't imagine like how what in the world someone in this age, like in this era, wants to have so many kids. He's probably like exploiting his wife. Like he's treating her like a reproductive machine or something. That was my feminist mind. And the other thing is his wife used to dress very modest, like with long skirts and long dresses, no cleavage. And we were living in Rio de Janeiro at that time, so hot, and I couldn't understand. So, why she's always covered? So, my feminist mind will tell me he forces her. So, I was pre-judging this couple, and it was this couple that saved my life and took care of me for almost six months while I was in this rehabilitation. Because I got really bad. I got really serious. I spent over six weeks in the ICU.

Victor Nieves 17:41

So it nearly killed you, Sara. The abortion that they told you would fix everything.

Sara Huff 17:45

I got sepsis. So that's what it's actually killing American women. How many women so far have been rushed to the hospital like I did, like from abortion clinics? And we had two other examples just one or two years ago of American women that had an abortion and also got sepsis, but they weren't lucky as I was. They actually lost their lives. I had a Christian man who saved my life because my feminist friends, they just abandoned me. So that was, of course, a big something that made me think a lot about it. But I've suffered a lot. I developed in those six months after my abortion, I developed the post-abortion syndrome, which is something that also feminists and abortionists they claim that it's not a thing, it doesn't exist, there's no evidence, and this is a lie. Because there is any other explanation why I kept six months hearing babies crying inside my head, all over my apartment, even on the streets, and there was no baby there. I had terrible nightmares, and I started to drink and drink and get drunk every single day. So because only in my drunken state, I will no longer hear those babies crying. And I started to have sex with multiple different men because I was so scared of being by myself. I got really depressed. I started self-cutting. People can't see through the radio, but I have multiple scars in my arms, in my belly, and my chest, and my legs, because I was hating myself for what I've done. But God, He was so merciful to me, you know, because one of the things I heard from the medical team, it was that I I lost one of my fallopian tubes. My uterus, it was severely damaged, that I could never have kids again. But six months after I have an abortion, I got pregnant

Healing, Faith, And A Second Pregnancy

Sara Huff 19:44

again. And my little miracle now, his name is Hector, and he is 10 years old. So God was very merciful to me. I can say that during my five years of liberal, progressive, feminist activist, I never stopped believing in God. I was just really mad at him because I couldn't understand. And I kept asking, why? Why do I have to suffer so much? Why, why? And then I understood it's not why. It's for what? Because when I decided to get away from all that, of course I was no longer feminist, so I wasn't being funded anymore, right? So I went through a terrible financial crisis. And Victor, do you know who helped me?

Victor Nieves 20:24

Who was it?

Sara Huff 20:25

Because I was with a newborn baby, pregnancy resource centers. And I used to hate them. We will go to TV and debate against each other, but they helped me. And all Christians, I recorded a video asking for forgiveness for all Christian people that I have offended with my feminist actions, and people just, you know, they said, We forgive you. It was those people that I used to persecute for five years who extended their hands, saved my life, and gave me many opportunities from diapers, so many resources, food, formula, psychologists and therapists, lawyers, social workers, they paid a year of my rent and they said, You're smart. We will send you to college. They sent me to college, and they paid a year of my tuition, and they gave me a job, pregnancy resource centers. And when I started to walk by myself, then I started to serve them. And God was so amazing to me that in the year of 2019, was nominated by the former conservative president George Bolsonaro to serve as the national coordinator for pregnancy policies in my own country. And then I could have the opportunity to give back to pregnancy resource centers funding then with taxpayer money. And it was amazing. But I'm living here in the US now. I am super happy. That's what I do. You know, I want just to tell women that a pregnancy, an unexpected pregnancy, is absolutely not the end of the world. I couldn't have more kids after Hector, but God, He blessed me with a husband with four other kids. So now we have a big and beautiful family. And I think my purpose in this earth is just to share with women that they don't need any sorts of propaganda or ideologists to actually be powerful. We are already powerful. We don't need to mimic men to actually succeed in life. With everything that God gave it to us in our own nature, we can be very happy, successful, and truly empowered.

Victor Nieves 22:38

Amazing. Sarah, your story is just absolutely incredible. It's one of a kind, but there are so many themes. You know, I can only imagine the number of women who today find themselves in very similar shoes to where you were years ago. What's your advice to women? They're hearing the siren song, the propaganda of the feminist movement or of the pro-abortion folks. We're trying to convince them that their child's not really a human, that if they would just reject God, if they would reject the truth and the sanctity of life, that, you know, somehow their life would be better, you've been down that path and you lived, thank God, you lived to tell the story. What's your advice to a susceptible young woman who finds herself in the very shoes that you were once in?

Advice For Women And Where Help Is

Sara Huff 23:20

Well, I will tell that there are so many good people out there to help you. Because I don't believe the women will elect abortion as her very first option. As a woman, I truly believe that when we find out that we are carrying an expected pregnancy, what do I do now? What about my boyfriend? What about my career? What about this? What about that? And then when we ran out of options, even though that thought might take less than five minutes, when we figure out that we ran out of options, then we think about abortion. So I just conclude that abortion is not an option for women. Abortion is the lack of options for women. And what do we need now is to make women aware there are options right there for you. So if you are facing an unplanned, unexpected pregnancy, abortion will not solve your problems. It will actually give you more problems. And what do you want now? You don't want more problems. You want solutions for your problems. So there are people out there, pregnancy resource centers, they want to help you. They want to love you. They want to treat you as the woman that you deserve to be treated. So please go online and just type pregnancy resource centers. They are millions of people around the world ready to help you with every single thing you need.

Victor Nieves 24:39

Well, Sarah, thank you so, so much for joining us today. It's been a pleasure.

Sara Huff 24:43

Thank you so much.

Victor Nieves 25:05

You know one of the things that really stands out to me from today's conversation here in the United States, we have a voice that obviously impacts our country. But what our country does impacts the entire rest of the world. It could be a young woman in Brazil who's looking to America for guidance on what to do. And when they hear, like Sarah did, that abortion is just handed out like candy in the United States. It can change what they do. So it just highlights the importance of every single one of us standing for life, speaking up, defending life. I want to encourage you to go to our website, lifeissues.org. Make use of the free information, the resources, the tools, share them with your friends, your family members, your church community so that together we can defend life, not only in the United States, but across the entire world. And be sure to tune in next week for another straight talk on life issues.