"It hurts, because there were some moments where you feel like you're standing there alone," she said.
Her undocumented immigrant status surfaced in court, with Planned Parenthood using it against her to discredit her as a "liar."
"I never thought that would come through from an organization that stands for immigrant rights, but it did," she said. "My kids were there, and it hurts. You don't know that it's like until you're in the position we are."
"When you're called a liar for finding work to provide for your family, it's hard," she told CNA. Rodriguez said "some of them knew" at Planned Parenthood about her immigration status, although "they denied knowing."
During the court process, Rodriguez said a mutual friend encouraged her to reach out to Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood clinic director who left the abortion industry and eventually founded the ministry And Then There Were None to help hundreds of abortion clinic workers also leave the industry. The film "Unplanned" that was released in theatres this year tells Johnson's story.
Rodriguez noticed that she shared some similarities with Johnson's story-"we were kind of the stars of the organization, and then all of a sudden we just dropped to being the bad kids."
Then on Friday, Rodriguez's court battle came to an end-she was awarded $3 million in damages by a jury in a Maricopa County Court.
"There's no words to describe" the faces of the jurors, Rodriguez said, "the sympathy they had on their face at that moment, knowing what I had gone through and what they had seen-the sympathy."
Johnson stated her solidarity with Rodriguez following Friday's decision.
"When Mayra came to And Then There Were None with her incredible story, I felt solidarity with her, having gone through a similar situation when I worked for Planned Parenthood," Johnson said in a statement.
"Standing with her through the trial and rejoicing in the ultimate victory has been amazing."
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Matt Hadro was the political editor at Catholic News Agency through October 2021. He previously worked as CNA senior D.C. correspondent and as a press secretary for U.S. Congressman Chris Smith.