[00:00:04] Announcer
Welcome back to the Bob Harden Show. And now here’s your host, Bob Harden.
[00:00:10] Bob Harden
Thanks so much for joining us here on the show. It’s brought to you in part by Gulfshore Playhouse changing lives through exceptional theatre experiences. And now doing so in a new performing arts and education center in downtown Naples. Absolutely beautiful on the corner of 41 and good at Frank. I hope you’ll check out and get tickets for upcoming performances. The website is Gulfshore Playhouse. We have the Shaun Guevarra. He is the Mission Advancement Director for Community Pregnancy Clinics. Shaun, thank you so much for joining us here on the show.
[00:00:41] Shaun Guevarra
Good morning, Bob. Thanks so much for having me.
[00:00:43] Bob Harden
My pleasure. Shaun, tell us about the Community Pregnancy Clinics.
[00:00:48] Shaun Guevarra
Community Pregnancy Clinics is one of the oldest pregnancy resource centers in the nation. Starting in 1974, we’re actually one of the largest in Florida. We have five clinics and two mobile clinics, and we serve all the way from Naples up to Gainesville. We offer a life affirming services, pregnancy services for women. We support men and women in the need of that crisis pregnancy. We have pregnancy tests and ultrasounds, referral services and three years of material assistance. We have education programs to to help the community before the crisis as well. And we’re trying to be available. So we always try to be available for care, compassion and choices for the women that often can’t find the help anywhere else.
[00:01:36] Bob Harden
Great organization, I must I’ve been to several of the meetings, especially the the life affirming meetings held annually, and it’s just so impressive to see women who feel like you’re abandoned and alone and left alone and wondering what the heck they can do about their situation. And the Community Pregnancy Clinics comes in, provides good information, support, and also love surrounding the the person with a loving environment and so many beautiful kids coming out of this situation.
[00:02:07] Shaun Guevarra
Yeah, absolutely. I think that’s really what sets the difference in the tone, is making sure that, you know, all the opportunities are there. All of the options and education. And then like you said, it’s making sure to know that they’re loved, that they’re not alone in this, that they have the support. And it really takes: we like to say it doesn’t take a village, right. It takes a community to to be able to support and raise a kid. And that’s what we are. We’re that community and bring the whole community together to do that so that we can provide that care and compassion and help them do it.
And we see the fruits of it every single day. We see all these miracles happening. And, you know, we just see the life changing effect that it has on women, on men, mothers and fathers, and especially for these babies.
[00:03:01] Bob Harden
Yeah, well, it’s just so impressive. Again, I can’t think of a more lonely moment than a woman who finds out that she’s pregnant. An unwanted pregnancy and nowhere to turn. And the Community Pregnancy Clinics again, provides great support.
So there’s the Florida six week Heartbeat Protection Act, and apparently it’s not being enforced. Maybe you could tell us about it.
[00:03:24] Shaun Guevarra
Yeah, and I like that you said the the six week Heartbeat Protection Act. So it’s what is called as a heartbeat protection Act, but in reality, what it is, this is from Senate Bill 300. It is actually a gestational age of the fetus. So it’s six week. And it’s meant to prohibit physicians from knowingly performing or inducing termination of pregnancy after that gestational age. So this is what replaced the previous 15 weeks. And then it has some exceptions with it. And we’ve been seeing, and it’s been interesting, is that as we have it in place we haven’t seen any changes necessarily to the access to abortion. The surgical abortion part has been reduced, but the access to chemical; the abortion pills, has only increased. And even tracking that has mysteriously disappeared. We’re not tracking the gestational age anymore. So that’s a big question. And and we’re not seeing, there hasn’t been a single abortion clinic that is closed since that, there hasn’t been any kind of you know, litigation out there. In Texas, you know, we’re seeing that there’s civil liabilities and whatnot. And, and a lot of it has to do shield laws that states like New York and Massachusetts have that protect their doctors. And so even though these shouldn’t be mailed into the state of Florida, these are being mailed directly to women and to men, actually. And we’ve seen many women taking abortion pills up to about 16 weeks in their pregnancy in clinics around Florida, which is heartbreaking and and definitely not according to the law.
[00:05:18] Bob Harden
That is heartbreaking. And my understanding is the law applies and punishes the physician, not necessarily the woman who might be involved in that. So what I’m hearing you say is that the abortion pills have become a workaround for physicians.
[00:05:34] Shaun Guevarra
They have. And in a way the post office becomes, or however they received in the mail, ends up becoming the, the transmitting agent, right, for these women and then the women themselves with the abortion pill, unlike when they would go into a clinic they’re supposed to be seeing a physician, there’s supposed to be a consult, and there is supposed to be a 24 hour period to allow them to understand what they’re going through. But the women are becoming their own doctors, and so many of them are taking these pills at home. And this really is a medical procedure, these pills. The two that they take, they’re… This is no joke. It’s some serious stuff. And there are limitations to when when you should take it. And and there definitely should be ultrasounds involved, and that’s not happening. And so all of a sudden you’re getting access to medicine. And this isn’t something like a Tylenol when you have a headache. This is a an actual medical procedure, a process that is not having a medical consult with it. And that’s a very serious thing. Many women’s lives are in danger especially if they take it a lot later. There is reversal options, but I don’t think enough people know about it. And we need to educate our public on that.
[00:06:51] Bob Harden
So Shaun, at the Community Pregnancy Clinic, what’s the solution? What can we do about this?
[00:06:58] Shaun Guevarra
So the first is always, like I said, education. To let folks know what to know, what actually it is that they’re looking for and understanding what the concern is for abortion, and abortion pills. If a woman has taken, if someone knows someone who has taken the first of the two pills. So it’s mifepristone and misoprostol, the first one, if they take it that basically is supposed to remove the progesterone. There is an abortion pill reversal. So there’s a hotline number. Everybody’s on their phones these days so they can look up abortion pill reversal. And they’ll be able to be connected to a nurse who will support them and assess the situation and be able to provide a reversal response, which is helping them get the progesterone back in their body so that their body can protect the baby and feed the baby. When you remove the progesterone, you basically take away the mechanism of feeding and nurturing the baby in the womb.
[00:07:58] Bob Harden
Is this a good law? In other words, is there something we should be doing legislatively to make it safer for women and for the baby?
[00:08:06] Shaun Guevarra
So I’m not a politician, but when I look at something that is seems unenforceable. I mean, it would be great to start seeing it enforced. So how can we do that? Yeah. But, yeah, I mean, if we’re not taking metrics and if we’re, we’re not actually, you know, checking in and enforcing it, then you kind of have to question, what is it? What is it doing? And I, you know, we all hope that it’s not, you know, just lip service. Right. That we meant it when we put it in place. We fought for it. Everybody. You know, we all believe in it. And that should go all the way from, you know, the people on the streets making the vote all the way up to the top. So it there definitely needs to be awareness to our representatives to, you know, to Tallahassee that we have a law in place that isn’t being followed, and there’s a lot of offences taking place. And we’ve seen places like Texas and Arkansas and other places that where even the AG has gone after and done, you know, going after these multi state shield laws and prosecuting criminally or even from a civil standpoint, what can be done. So I think there’s things that we can do in the state of Florida and it’s not too late.
[00:09:19] Bob Harden
Well thank you Shaun. I know you have a couple of websites, one for potential for women who have a pregnancy and also for people who would be interested in supporting the Community Pregnancy Clinics. Maybe you could share it with us.
[00:09:35] Shaun Guevarra
Yeah. Sure thing. So for women that are in need of help, or if you know someone that needs help, they can go to communitypregnancyclinic.com. And that will give them all the resources they need. It will show all of our locations and our hours and be able to help them. And then for those that are willing to to help time, talent and treasure was always opportunities is always need to work with everybody. They can go to our website at supportCPCI.com and that is just a way for us to connect with the community more, and for them to be updated and and just to know what’s going on and how they can also make a difference in supporting lives and and bringing love, care and compassion to the to women and men that are in need.
[00:10:23] Bob Harden
Thank you Shaun, again, Shaun Guevara, Mission Advancement Director with the Community Pregnancy Clinics. I really appreciate your commentary. Terrific organization. Thank you so much for joining us.
[00:10:34] Shaun Guevarra
Oh thank you Bob. Take care. Have a blessed day.
[00:10:36] Bob Harden
You as well. Thank you. All right. We’re going to have more here on the Bob Harden Show on the Bob Harden Broadcasting Network.
[00:10:47] Announcer
Stay tuned for more of the Bob Hardin Show here on the Bob Hardin Broadcasting Network.