Sue Feaga, writing as a member of Gettysburg Conservatives and a representative of the Tender Care Pregnancy Center has written an opinion piece from a pro-life standpoint.
It should be noted that Tender Care Pregnancy Center is not a licensed healthcare facility, nor is its practice licensed, inspected, or certified by the state of Pennsylvania.
There is no evidence that Ms. Feaga is currently licensed as a nurse, nor as a therapist from the state of Pennsylvania. A Darlene Feaga in Gettysburg, however, let her nursing license expire in 2002. https://www.pals.pa.gov/#!/page/search
Anyone with $1,200 can buy an ultrasound machine from Amazon and show women images of their fetus on a screen. Tender Care is not held to any federal or state standard to ensure their equipment and procedures do not harm women.
Unlike Planned Parenthood offices, which are state-licensed healthcare facilities, Tender Care does not accept health insurance.
Feaga makes egregiously wrong claims about fetuses. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists agrees with peer-reviewed science that fetuses do not feel pain until 24 weeks gestation, which coincides with their definition of viability – the ability to live outside of the womb and the largely-accepted barrier to abortions beyond that fetal age.
Moreover, any licensed pediatrician can explain that the function of lungs, for example, does not happen until birth when a baby can take its first breath, which is also the Biblical definition of Life.
While vividly describing the outcome of a medicated abortion as the basic pain and trial of any miscarriage, of which one in five pregnancies naturally result, Feaga fails to acknowledge the potential harms of the 2022 Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
Because miscarriages don’t always expel all fetal tissue, some may begin to rot inside the woman, who then needs a dilation and curettage (D&C) to remove it. Disastrously, where abortion-restrictive states broadly interpret D&C as abortion, medical doctors don’t advocate the procedure, at risk to their licensure, until the mother’s life is on the brink. With a grim increasing frequency, mothers are dying because the life-saving D&C or abortion didn’t come in time. And they are mothers, because sixty percent of people who seek abortion already identify as mothers.
If anyone knows a pregnant person’s circumstances best, it is that person. Whether they are suffering a health condition that is incompatible with pregnancy, an abusive situation, they can’t afford another mouth to feed, or they never want to be pregnant, have a baby, or raise a child, reproductive freedom that includes access to safe and legal abortion, birth control, in vitro fertilization, and gender-affirming care offers them real choices about their lives ahead.
Only when we can create the families we choose are we truly free.
I am not sure what my deceased mother in laws expired nursing license has anything to do with the points you were trying to make Beth except to hope it would discredit statements that I made. Tender Care does have a nurse on staff who is also a trained sonographer and all ultrasounds are followed up by a licensed physician. Tender Care has encouraged thousands of families in their journey to parenthood through pregnancy testing, ultrasounds, parenting classes, material assistance and post abortive counseling. And you are correct to say that Tender Care does not charge for their services because… Read more »
The circumstances of my conception do not determine my worth. Regarding Farnham’s comments about another mouth to feed and only when we create the family we choose are we actually free, would that include killing a male fetus because you wanted a female? Or terminating a Down’s Syndrome child? Ask a woman 10 years after an abortion if she regrets her decision. Then ask a woman who decided to keep a child if she regrets her decision. You may be surprised.