There was a time when Ann
Bukacek was pro-choice.
  Things changed, though, when
she was five months into her first
pregnancy and felt the baby kicking.
It was one of those life-changing
moments — an epiphany if you
will — when Bukacek, then 21, said
she realized the absolute defenselessness
of the unborn.
  “The helplessness of the voiceless
unborn is part of what spurs me on
to protect them,” she said.
  She’s been a pro-life crusader
ever since.
  Bukacek, now 51, is an internal
medicine physician who operates
the Christian-based Hosanna Health
Care clinic in Kalispell. What sets
her practice apart, other than its
Christian tenets, is that she makes
a point of spending an entire hour
with each patient.
  “It’s absolutely critical to spend
time with patients,” she said. “Otherwise
you can’t give good quality
care. We treat the whole patient.
We know what’s going on in their
lives ... it helps keep up on preventative
measures.”
  Bukacek spent five years at
Kalispell Diagnostic Service but
was told she’d have to stop praying
with patients or leave the physician
group. She wouldn’t compromise
her faith, so she broke away and
began her own practice.
  While her practice is based in
Christianity, her patients run the
gamut — atheists, agnostics, New
Age followers.
  “I don’t treat them any differently,”
she said. “They’re here for medical
care. I never try to proselytize.”
  Those who have followed
Bukacek’s prolific letter-to-the editor
writing know, though, that she
stands firmly in her beliefs and
doesn’t mince words.
  Protecting the unborn, she said,
“goes to the very core of what it
means to be a treasured human
being made in God’s image.” Then
she adds: “God does give blessings
and cursings. This country is being

judged for its destruction of unborn
children. We are experiencing God’s
wrath already. I pledge to do whatever
I can to stand up for His precepts.”
  Ironically, it was her parents,
whom she describes as “ultra-liberal
Roman Catholic Democrats,”
who nurtured her to be an independent
self-thinker.
  “I turned out to be a very conservative
nondenominational Republican,”
Bukacek said. “My parents
taught me to think for myself, to
seek truth and to not succumb to
peer pressure ... they raised me to
love everybody, to not judge based
on race or creed and to stand up for
the downtrodden, especially those
that can’t speak for themselves.”
  And while she’s not afraid to say
what she thinks, Bukacek also said
she doesn’t judge people. She simply
sees them (even her parents) as
“blind-sighted” in certain areas.
  “My parents have tender, wonderful
hearts of compassion, but
there’s a disconnect between
parts of their thinking” and in the
thought process of liberals in general,
she maintained.