Astrid Bennett Gutierrez, MEV, is the Executive Director of Los Angeles Pregnancy Services (LAPS), a pregnancy help center located in L.A.’s abortion ground zero. She is a member of the Missionaries of the Gospel of Life (MEV), the lay association of Priests for Life. She is also President of Hispanics for Life and Human Rights. Astrid is a member of the Commission for Catholic Life Issues of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles where she assists Monsignor Timothy O’Connell with the formation of Hispanic Respect Life committees. She is a co-host, along with Janet Morana and Teresa Tomeo of the new EWTN series, The Catholic View for Women. Astrid has also appeared on other national religious and secular networks such as Fox News, CNN, Univision and NBC affiliate Telemundo, sometimes debating Planned Parenthood representatives. She hosts a weekly radio program on ESNE Radio (El Sembrador Ministries) entitled Viviendo la Cultura de la Vida (Living the Culture of Life) and is a frequent guest on Guadalupe Radio and the Evangelical television network Almavision. She has appeared in the first two seasons of EWTN’s Defending Life series in Spanish “Defendiendo la Vida.” When majoring in European Studies at UCLA, Astrid envisioned her education would lead to a teaching career, with summers free to be spent traveling in Europe. She never imagined she would be showing up for work every day in the same impoverished, rough and tumble neighborhood she lived in as a child. “Whatever plans I thought I had for myself went out the window when my eyes were opened to the wanton taking of innocent life through abortion,” recalls Astrid. “I knew I had to get off the sidelines and do what I could to save innocent lives and provide aid and comfort to women facing crisis pregnancies.”