{"id":64146,"date":"2026-03-26T19:21:48","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T23:21:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=64146"},"modified":"2026-03-26T19:21:53","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T23:21:53","slug":"letter-planned-parenthood-in-lakeland-is-gone-the-pro-life-safety-net-remains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/03\/26\/letter-planned-parenthood-in-lakeland-is-gone-the-pro-life-safety-net-remains\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter: Planned Parenthood in Lakeland is gone; the pro-life safety net remains\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Almost fifty Planned Parenthoods have shuttered their doors across the country. Pro-abortion advocates decry this in outrage, claiming women\u2019s freedoms are being restricted and healthcare access is being denied. As the pro-abortion industry laments, the pro-life movement celebrates the lives that will be saved, and we continue to do what we do best \u2013 offering real support to women in need. We know\u00a0why women resort to abortion<\/a>. She is often a single mother in her 20s, already taking care of older children and living below the poverty line. When Planned Parenthood closes, other pressures are pushing her towards abortion that do not disappear with them. An abortion-vulnerable mom is still financially insecure, lacking adequate housing or transportation, struggling to find work and childcare, or running from complex trauma and abuse.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Planned Parenthood in Lakeland, Florida, announced it would close its doors for good on March 13, 2026. After a continued presence of over fifty years, Polk County will no longer have a single brick-and-mortar Planned Parenthood location.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without Planned Parenthood and big abortion standing in the way, real care and real support will be more readily available than ever to vulnerable moms and their babies. Real care is offered by organizations like\u00a0Options for Women, a pregnancy center that has three locations and a mobile clinic where women receive pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, STD testing, and women\u2019s wellness exam referrals at no cost. If the STD test is positive, clients are referred to the Florida Health Department, where they can receive free treatment for the infection.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly,\u00a0A Woman\u2019s Choice<\/a>\u00a0provides pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, STD testing, abortion recovery support, and community referrals free of charge throughout Polk County.\u00a0Lakeland Volunteers in Medicine\u00a0is a volunteer-run medical clinic that provides free, quality medical care to the working uninsured populations in Polk County. Services include primary care, diagnostics, pharmacy, mental health, dental, and vision care. Talbot House Ministries, a local homeless shelter, also runs\u00a0Good Samaritan Free Clinic,\u00a0which offers medical care to families and individuals in need.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Volunteer medical professionals and pro-life advocates are ready to care for abortion-vulnerable moms in Lakeland, Polk County, and across the country. Together, these local charities, ministries, businesses, and professionals make up the pro-life safety net. When Planned Parenthoods and abortion clinics shutter nationwide, we can only have one response: we must direct them to the network of real support that already exists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sixty percent of women who have abortions<\/a> would have preferred to give birth had they received more emotional or financial support. That support is available in Lakeland and continues to grow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her PLAN<\/a>\u00a0launched a coalition of public officials, churches, charities, businesses and individuals in Lakeland in 2025. This coalition \u2013 Her Community \u2013 is designed to address the adequacy of the local pro-life safety net and identify opportunities to expand or launch resources that address unmet needs. This work leads to establishing new resources or the growth of under-resourced, high-demand programs in the community.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Planned Parenthood in Lakeland did not perform abortions locally, they referred pregnant women to their abortion providing facilities in Tampa and Orlando. While Planned Parenthood required insurance or offered services on a sliding scale, pro-life pregnancy centers and clinics around Lakeland offer their services for free \u2013 without the added pressure to abort. There is a robust network of resources and life-affirming medical providers in Polk County ready to help mothers get back on their feet and choose life for their babies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When a vulnerable woman is living in poverty, struggling with an addiction, or trapped in an abusive relationship, having an abortion isn\u2019t going to meet her underlying needs. Abortion does not put a roof over her head or gas in her car to find a stable job. But the local pro-life safety net \u2013 Her Community \u2013 has and will continue to help moms in need. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

No woman should face an unexpected pregnancy alone. With the providers and resources still present in Lakeland, she doesn\u2019t have to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ava Winkler is Florida Coordinator for Her PLAN, an initiative to connect and grow the pro-life safety net of support for moms and babies.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Almost fifty Planned Parenthoods have shuttered their doors across the country. Pro-abortion advocates decry this in outrage, claiming women\u2019s freedoms are being restricted and healthcare access is being denied. As… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10222,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyMVwvMDRcL0xFVFRFUi1UTy1USEUtRURJVE9SLmpwZz9maXQ9MTAyNCUyQzU3NiZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6IkxldHRlcjogUGxhbm5lZCBQYXJlbnRob29kIGluIExha2VsYW5kIGlzIGdvbmU7IHRoZSBwcm8tbGlmZSBzYWZldHkgbmV0IHJlbWFpbnNcdTAwYTAiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImhpZ2h3YXkiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.QupMT8q2sQus11Mh3Ep2txdFcJBVqdhs7R8ozimBihsMQ"},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[14208],"class_list":["post-64146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-letters","tag-letter-planned-parenthood-in-lakeland-is-gone-the-pro-life-safety-net-remains"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64146"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64147,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64146\/revisions\/64147"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}