By Amira Abuzeid
EWTN News
Newly appointed White House press secretary and pro-life advocate Katie Zacharia, whose appointment President Donald Trump announced Oct. 9, has shared that her biological mother chose life over abortion in the final moments before a scheduled procedure, calling it a “miracle.”
Last year Zacharia, now herself a mother of four and an attorney, described in an interview with “We The People with Gates Garcia” how the precise circumstances of her birth became the foundation of her pro-life convictions.
She told Garcia that she was “approximately 20, 30 minutes away from being aborted” when her mother, Ruth, changed her mind.
Ruth, whom Zacharia described as having a “tough background of sexual abuse,” was about to head to her abortion appointment when the biological father called, pushing the abortion.
Ruth was about to walk out the door to head to the clinic when the phone rang again. Ruth walked back to the phone to answer it, and the Christian counselor who’d called urged her to “consider an open adoption rather than an abortion, so you have an opportunity to know who this child could be and give this child an opportunity to live.”
The counselor told her she did not understand “how painful” abortion would be for her, because along with “the loss of [her] baby,” there would be “ensuing psychological, physical … trauma.”
Zacharia said her mother decided not to go through with the abortion “to the anger and dismay of her family,” which allowed Zacharia to be adopted as a newborn. She later met her biological mother at age 18, who told her the story. She said that “seconds of a phone call … saved my life,” calling her story “a miracle” that explains why the issue is “so near and dear” to her.
Zacharia, who while in law school at Pepperdine University served as president of the university’s Christian Legal Society chapter, has also served on the board of advisers for the White Rose Resistance, a group founded by Seth Gruber that advocates for legal protection for the unborn.
Zacharia has been a frequent commentator on Fox News, Newsmax, and other outlets. She also previously worked as general counsel for Fix California, a conservative nonprofit.
In February, she became deputy assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security under then-Secretary Kristi Noem. She resigned after roughly a month, citing the strain on her family of commuting between California, her home, and Washington, D.C. In June, she joined Trump Media & Technology Group/Truth Social as a senior communications adviser.
Zacharia succeeds Karoline Leavitt, who in an interview with Sean Hannity last month explained that she left the position to spend more time with her growing family.
Trump said Zacharia would begin her new role on Oct. 12 and hold an introductory news conference on Wednesday, Oct. 14, at 9:30 a.m. ET in the White House press briefing room.
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