Boise crisis pregnancy center and Planned Parenthood clinic now neighbors
UPDATED Nov. 11, with additions to the list of services offered* by Stanton Healthcare A Planned Parenthood clinic in Boise, Idaho, has a new neighbor, Stanton
Jul 31, 2020212.4K Shares2.8M Views
UPDATED Nov. 11, with additions to the list of services offeredby Stanton Healthcare*
A Planned Parenthood clinic in Boise, Idaho, has a new neighbor, Stanton Healthcare, which identifies itselfas a “life-affirming medical clinic … specializing in unexpected pregnancy care” but offers similar services to anti-abortion centers commonly known as “crisis pregnancy centers,” or CPCs.
Stanton Healthcare recently moved to 3684 N. Harbor Ln. in Boise, right next to Boise Health Center, a Planned Parenthood clinic located at 3668 N. Harbor Ln.
Brandi Swindell founded the nonprofit, which last month co-sponsored an anti-abortion-rights demonstration at the U.S. Capitolcalled “Voices From the Womb.” It was Stanton Healthcare’s portable ultrasound equipment that enabled pregnant women at various stages to undergo live public ultrasound displayed on a large screen in the Congressional Auditorium of the Capitol Visitor’s Center.
Swindell recently told local news station KTVB.comher center is not trying to compete with Planned Parenthood. The station reported “Swindell thinks this new location gives women more help for mothers and a better option for unexpected pregnancy.”
Swindell told KTVB:
“„“We don’t want to compete with them. We don’t want to get in a debate with them, that’s not what we’re about. We, right now, at Stanton Healthcare in this building, we’re focusing on the clients that walk through our doors. … Planned Parenthood sells one option. We’re not agenda driven. Really, we provide a lot more options that Planned Parenthood does.”
All of Stanton Healthcare’s services are free, unlike Planned Parenthood’s, though Planned Parenthood offers income assistance for various services based on need. The services themselves differ greatly.
According to its website, Stanton Healthcare offers*:
- Massage therapy for “emotional and physical well-being”
- Pregnancy testing
- “Sexual Information”
- Relationship guidance
- Legal advice
- Spiritual guidance referrals
- Hot tea, mineral water, organic snacks
- First-trimester ultrasounds
- Pre-natal services, such as vitamins, emotional support
- Parenting classes
Boise Health Center offers:
- Abortion services (medication abortion up to 9 weeks and surgical abortion up to 13 weeks)
- Birth control
- Emergency contraception
- Pregnancy testing
- HIV testing
- STD testing treatment and vaccines
- Women’s health care (checkups, cancer screenings, STD testing)
- Men’s health care (checkups, cancer screenings, STD testing, vasectomy)
- LGBT services (education and services referral)
Stanton does not offer birth control or STD-testing, but does offer advice for preventing STDs and pregnancy, known as “sexual integrity,” which involves:
- “Saving sexual relations for marriage”
- “Understanding the spiritual and emotional connection to sexual behavior”
- “Refraining from premarital sex to protect yourself from STDs like AIDS
- “Making the compassionate decision to not engage in promiscuous sexual activity, which put others in danger”
- “Promoting STD awareness”
Stanton Healthcare’s website also includes “12 considerations” when choosing an abortion provider, including asking abortion providers what their embryo or fetus looks like, what the physical and emotional complications of abortion might be and information on options other than abortion. Stanton Healthcare, unlike many CPCs, does not suggest a link between abortion and breast cancer in this section — the potential health risks they suggest include pain during the abortion, infections afterward, hemorrhaging, uterine perforation and possible complications from anesthesia. As for psychological risks associated with abortion, Stanton offers:
“„Research has shown that many women who have undergone abortion suffer from Post Abortion Stress Syndrome (PASS). While the American Psychiatric Association does not currently recognize PASS, this does not discount that many women suffer emotionally after experiencing an abortion. Beware of clinic workers who try to downplay the emotions that follow an abortion.
Rhyley Carney
Reviewer
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