CEO, Scott Baier, was recently on the Bob Harden Show where he discussed Florida’s 6-week abortion ban and the compassionate care of CPCI. Read the transcription below to learn what our non profit medical clinic is doing to support women before, during, and after pregnancy.
Transcription
Bob Harden: Thanks so much for joining us here on the show. We’re providing you news and commentary rooted in a commitment to individual liberty, personal responsibility, limited government and the rule of law. Coming up, we’re going to visit with Professor Larry Bell, Endowed professor at the University of Houston in space Architecture. Right now, we have with us Scott Baier. He is the CEO of the Community Pregnancy Clinics. Scott, thank you so much for joining us here on the show.
Scott Baier: Good morning, Bob. It’s always a pleasure to be with you.
Bob Harden: Thank you, Scott. Tell us about Community Pregnancy Clinics.
Scott Baier: Yes. We are one of the original 13 pregnancy resource centers in the country, started in 1974. And we are providing all sorts of resources and support for women and men in their time of need during an unplanned pregnancy, offering pregnancy tests, of course, ultrasounds, STI testing, three years of material assistance, and referral services and much more. We do a lot to help families in the state of Florida.
Bob Harden: Yeah, absolutely. And I’ve had an opportunity at a couple of your events to see some of those people and hear their testimony about how the experience has gone and all of them exude a sense of gratitude and happiness about the child that they were considering, perhaps aborting and then decided to have the child and just very pleased with with the results.
Scott Baier: Absolutely. We’re here to serve. And obviously, in our current times, we’re increasing our services and expanding our reach across the state of Florida. And this is certainly a time of need here in the country.
Bob Harden: Indeed. So, Scott, it’s also a tumultuous time. And we’re seeing Supreme Court decisions. We’re seeing here in the state of Florida a six week ban or a time limit for getting an abortion just passed, I guess, and signed by the governor. Just want to get your thoughts on that.
Scott Baier: Absolutely. This is a very misunderstood piece of legislation. And on the one hand, it is great, right? It’s going further into protecting all human persons, in this case up to six weeks if they have a heartbeat. It’s important to note that it’s not yet in in effect yet. Because of the privacy clause in our state constitution, the state Supreme Court will be deciding on the previous 15 week ban and its constitutionality. And if it’s determined that the privacy clause in our state constitution does not protect the right to abortion, then the six week ban will go into effect within 30 days. And so on the one hand, it’s great. On the other hand, there’s a sense also that, with the 82,000 abortions last year in the state of Florida, 45, about 45,000 of those happen before six weeks. So in one sense, it’s good, we’re going to be protecting many more human lives, and it’s a step in the right direction. But there’s still room for improvement, like other states have done, Oklahoma and others where they’ve banned and they’re protecting all human life from conception at the point of conception/fertilization. So we’re moving forward. It’s a great step in the state of Florida. It’s exciting times, but there’s a lot of political intrigue and there’s a lot of reasons to have hope, though, at the same time.
Bob Harden: So what has happened with, quote unquote, your numbers, so to speak, in terms of activity at the clinics and the demand and so forth? Can you speak to that?
Scott Baier: Absolutely. So we’re seeing in any one of our clinics, our seven clinics around the state of Florida, we’ll see 12 to 15 clients per day. And that’s increasing not so much from the ban yet because it’s obviously not taking effect. And also, we have chemical abortion in the mix, too, which we’ve spoken about in the past that’s increasing. But we also have a sense of women, for financial reasons due to a tough economy and inflation and so forth coming to us more often. They’re coming to us for for material assistance and support during their unintended pregnancy, but also we see the chemical abortion world, as I said, just increasing with a sense of urgency. Women are calling saying, “hey, is it legal or not?” And they’re having much more pressure to kind of make a decision earlier. And our goal is to slow them down. Pregnancy doesn’t have to be a crisis. 80% of women don’t know of the resources that are available to them in their area. And when they find out that there’s tremendous help to get them through the tough time so that they can get to the, you know, the fruitful time of their lives with their child. You know, women are choosing life, but they often don’t have a knowledge of the resources that are available. And we’re just trying to be out there to educate people and help them see that they do have help available.
Bob Harden: Yeah, it’s so important. Scott and I, you know, I can only imagine unwanted pregnancy, especially a young person who’s saying, “You know what, I don’t even want to tell this to my parents and my boyfriend. He doesn’t want to get involved. You know, I have no money. I have no material. I have no knowledge about how to raise a child.” And the Community Pregnancy Clinics addresses all those issues.
Scott Baier: And you know, we’re actually there before, during, and after. So before an unintended pregnancy, we’re trying to educate men and women on our college campuses. In high schools we’re putting our Outreach Coordinator who was on last time with you, Kathryn, into schools, talking about making healthy choices. So we’re there. We’re obviously there during the crisis, during the time of unintended pregnancy to help them and then three years beyond, we will help them with material assistance. But here’s another little angle. I think a lot about this, we know 1 in 4 people in this country have had a direct experience with abortion. So we’re here for them now. Support after the abortion if they do unfortunately choose that option, we’re there to help them with healing. We have resources available. Support after abortion dot com, I’ll throw a plug in for them. It’s a great resource and there are people who need healing so that we can break the cycle of pain and dysfunction so that we can actually prevent a future abortion.
Bob Harden: Yeah, I just can’t. I can’t imagine a woman saying, boy, am I happy I got that abortion. I just it just it there has to be some sort of residual after effect.
Scott Baier: Oh, absolutely. You know, there’s higher rates of depression. We know physical, social, emotional issues happen after an abortion. And the effort on the left to have women “shout out their abortion” failed miserably because most people who have made that unfortunate choice know it wasn’t what they really wanted. They wanted to have the baby quite often, but they just they thought they couldn’t do it, you know, And they thought they just didn’t have what it takes. And we always say when a woman feels lovable, she’ll be love able. So if we can as a culture, provide that love and support, provide the healing, provide the resources they need, they’re going to be able then to to bring that life into the world. And and we know countless stories, right, of women who have chosen life and after the fact said, oh my goodness, thank goodness I didn’t take the other option. And they have a beautiful family now. They just have to get through that time of need and crisis.
Bob Harden: Absolutely. Thank you for that, Scott. I wonder if you’d be willing to comment on the Supreme Court. There deciding now whether women will face restrictions in getting a drug used to most common method of abortion in the United States. This lawsuit is continuing. The Supreme Court, I guess, has put a hold on it for a while. What are your thoughts?
Scott Baier: Yes, so this is another area of very much needed education out there. So chemical abortion, RU486 is a really dangerous drug. It was, you know, first declared by the FDA to be one of the few drugs that needed REMS protocols, which is risk evaluation and mitigation strategies. That’s because that drug is really powerful and is dangerous. So in a nutshell, to summarize it, we have women right now who are doing self-inflicted abortions in their bathrooms. And so the trauma that’s associated with that is one thing after but how about during there’s infection possibility, hemorrhaging, if it’s an ectopic pregnancy, her life is in danger. Remember, these women don’t have to have an ultrasound prior to determine gestational age. So now we have women who are harming themselves. 28 officially have died in the country at this point. We know it’s many more because it’s often documented as a miscarriage when they go to the hospital. But unfortunately, the left is making money here. It’s a revenue generator and at the same time, women are being harmed. So we’re at a really critical time in our nation’s history if we allow this to happen, shame on us, right? Shame, shame on us as a country to make it legal and government sponsored and government protected.
Bob Harden: Yeah, well, thank you for that, Scott. And also, before I let you go, I know that you’ve got a very active program on college campuses. Maybe you could tell us about it.
Scott Baier: Yeah, that’s our university model. And again, like I said before, we’re just trying to be present on college campuses and high schools as well to show, young people that there are choices that we can all make, and healthy choices. And really, it’s kind of combating the left again, who are in the kindergarten and first grade and second grades getting into the schools. We want to be there to be an organization that they can trust so that if they do find themselves in an unintended pregnancy, they’ll have someone that they can trust that’s not called Planned Parenthood, which again, is revenue generating. 95% of their revenue comes from abortion. We are no cost. We are there to help, and we are there to support. And that’s what we’re trying to do.
Bob Harden: So all this costs money and how can we support your efforts?
Scott Baier: We are not for profit. We accept time, talent and treasure. We have so many volunteers and people who just want to be part of the great things we’re doing. And of course, the support side, you know, obviously often turns into the that treasure that people do share with us. We do not accept one penny of government dollars and that’s on purpose. So there are no strings attached. And we are doing what we feel is best for the women and men we serve. But we are totally supported by private donations. And if anybody would like to look into how they can support us with time, talent and treasure, they can do that at www.supportcpci.com.
Bob Harden: Supportcpci.com is the website. Scott, I just genuinely appreciate your commentary and the wonderful work that you’re doing in our community and in the state of Florida. Thank you so much for joining us.
Scott Baier: Thank you, Bob. Really appreciate it.
If you would like to support women in unexpected pregnancies receive the compassionate care and resources they need, make a pre born donation today. Your support of CPCI is saving thousands of lives throughout the state of Florida.
