Thirteen pregnancy or maternity resource centers in the region are coping with a lack of public funding in the new year after Gov. Josh Shapiro ended a 27-year contract with Real Alternatives effective Dec. 31.
Shapiro cited his pro-choice stance on women’s reproductive care in making the decision in August, but Real Alternatives, which supports and partners with anti-abortion centers, has also come under fire from the governor and other pro-choice advocates over claims the organization has provided misleading health information.
As to the end of the contract, some health care providers celebrate the change, while Real Alternatives, in a statement, calls it an action that “will cause extreme, permanent harm to Pennsylvania women and their unborn babies.”
‘Very devastating’
In 2022, Real Alternatives, which said it provides services to some 13,500 women a year, distributed about $7 million to more than 70 centers across the commonwealth through the state contract.
Providers in the anthracite region include five pregnancy resource centers; five social services centers that operate under Catholic Social Services of Scranton (including a center in Hazleton) or Catholic Charities of Allentown; and three maternity homes.
Catholic Charities is among the organizations that have opted to promote private fundraising to make up for the loss.
The organization, with locations in Pottsville, Reading and Allentown, provides material assistance and counseling for families.
Over the holiday season, Catholic Charities sought material donations throughout the five Catholic Diocese of Allentown locations for pregnancy and parenting support programs, Managing Director Andrea Kochan Neagle said.
Donations from the community can include diapers, formula, wipes and clothing as well as money.
Neagle declined to discuss how much money the organization received from Real Alternatives but said the operation will now be completely funded through private donors.
So far, communities among the five counties the charity, and diocese, serves — Schuylkill, Lehigh, Berks, Carbon and Northampton — have “really stepped up and answered the need that we communicated to them,” Neagle said.
Though unaffected by the funding cut, Care Net crisis pregnancy center directors expressed disappointment in the budgeting change. Care Net, a Christian network of crisis pregnancy centers, receives most of its funding through donations.
At the Care Net center in West Hazleton, called Shine Women’s Center, Valerie White, director, called the contract termination upsetting and said the agency provides nonjudgmental care.
“It was a real help to young families, with children, with young kids,” White said. “So I think it is very devastating that they’ve removed it, that they’ve eliminated the program.”
Cheryl Cresswell, executive director of Jewel Women’s Center, a Care Net center that provides medical and support services in Schuylkill Haven, said her heart broke with news of the contract ending.
Cresswell said she has heard the claims of crisis centers being “fake” clinics, but “we know what we’ve done to put the qualified medical personnel in place.”
White said the Shine Women’s Center offers sexually transmitted infection testing, pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, health care referrals, material support and parenting classes. A message at the bottom of the center’s website reads, “The information on this site is for educational purposes only and should not be substituted for medical or legal advice.”
They do not perform or provide referrals for abortions but offer counseling afterwards.
“We do say, you know, no matter what choice you make, you’re always welcome to come back here,” White said. “We are nonjudgmental. We’ve had people of different religions, we’ve had people of no religion, we’ve had people of no faith, many different ethnicities, people from different countries, people with different languages.”
New DHS program
The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, a few weeks after announcement of the Real Alternatives contract ending, advertised requests for applications for “Women’s Service Programs.” Results of the process are expected in the “coming days,” the agency reported last week.
The goal is to “broaden health care access, amplify awareness and cultivate well-informed decision-making with a particular focus on women, pregnant women and new mothers,” DHS said.
The program would operate in six regions. The “Northeast” would include Carbon, Lackawanna, Lehigh, Luzerne, Monroe, Northampton, Pike, Schuylkill, Susquehanna, Wayne and Wyoming counties.
Objectives would be to “provide women’s service programs that consist of education, screening, testing and menstrual services.”
In its request for applications, DHS said the awardee must provide, among other things, medically accurate, trauma-informed, nonjudgmental, client-centered and culturally responsible care.
Concerns
In August, state Department of Health Secretary Val Arkoosh had called the Real Alternatives funding cut a step toward promoting a woman’s right to “unbiased, medically accurate care and counsel.”
“These services are essential, and Pennsylvanians deserve honesty from those they trust with medical care or counsel,” a DHS spokesperson said. “Alternatives to abortion are options for those who do not wish to parent but would like to carry their pregnancy to term, but based on reports from other states, there are serious concerns regarding potentially deceptive practices employed by certain crisis pregnancy centers nationwide.”
Dr. Michael Belmonte, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Darney-Landy Fellow and OBGYN and complex family planning subspecialist, said he’s had many patients whose care has been delayed because they started with a crisis center.
“And ultimately, I am now diagnosing potentially a placental concern or some other concern that if a licensed medical professional had done the ultrasound, had looked at the ultrasound images, would have guided management in a more safe way,” he said.
Samantha Bobila, chief external affairs officer for Planned Parenthood Keystone, said some patients who sought care at a crisis pregnancy center were initially told the incorrect gestational age.
She noted that Planned Parenthood is a medical service provider licensed by the Department of Health and therefore subject to DOH inspections, reports from which are available to the public. Agencies like crisis pregnancy centers are not licensed by the DOH, she said.
“And patients who are just looking to understand all of the options available to them are going through these centers and thinking that they can get medically accurate information and then they don’t,” Bobila said.
Putting funding toward monitored women’s service programs, Belmonte said, is cause for celebration.
“Ultimately, if we can reroute that funding to true care avenues so that everyone has access to a happy, healthy pregnancy, and abortion, adoption, care — all of those options,” he said, “that’s ultimately what’s going to benefit the general public and each individual patient.”
People like Cresswell at Jewel, meanwhile, defend their services.
“We are definitely a pro-life organization, but without judgement,” she said. “We are not going to make a decision for someone.”
Source: Berkshire mont
Be First to Comment