A central Pennsylvania pregnancy help clinic is joyfully opening its second location after several years of prayer, preparation, and patience.
The new Pregnancy Resource Clinic of Lock Haven, Pa., held an open house on April 11 and a grand opening for the public on April 15.
Pregnancy Resource Clinic of State College, Pa., home to the Penn State University main campus, is opening the doors of its second clinic in the same community as a recently announced state-funded pilot program set to replicate pregnancy centers.
Jenny Summers is the executive director of Pregnancy Resource Clinic (PRC) and has been serving at the State College area center for the past 16 years. She said the concept of expanding with a satellite location was first suggested in 2010. The city of Lock Haven is less than 40 miles from State College and is also a college town. Commonwealth University- Lock Haven is there and has an enrollment of nearly 4,000 students.
“I was approached by a congregant of a Lock Haven church if I would ever consider opening a second site in Lock Haven,” Summers said. “That idea was tabled for many reasons until 2015 when I was given the blessing by the board to reach out to Lock Haven pastors to see if they see a need for a pregnancy center and if they would support our efforts to help raise support for a future second site in Lock Haven.
They unanimously agreed to support Pregnancy Resource Clinic’s effort to expand there, Summers told Pregnancy Help News.
“This effort has taken us 10 years to educate, encourage, and empower the community to accomplish this effort alongside us along the way,” she said. “It has been a challenge and a joy to see this come to fruition. “
The need was clear to Summers and her board of directors. Clients were seeking out the services the pregnancy clinic offers, such as ultrasounds, pregnancy tests, options education, abortion recovery care, STD testing and treatment, materials assistance, and a fatherhood program that is in the process of expanding.
Summers said staff and volunteers began serving clients at a local church in Lock Haven in 2024 until specifics were finalized with the office location.
“We have a current patient base who is looking forward to us opening our new building,” she said.
“We've been empowered to build so many relationships with service providers, businesses, churches, and awareness over the last 10 years,” Summer said. “We're finally moving into our new home, and I could not be more excited for how PRC will get to help create lasting and eternal change in the patients and their families whom we will have the honor and privilege to serve.”
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Summers is also a member of the Pennsylvania Pregnancy Wellness Collaborative (PPWC) formed in 2023 in response to the state government’s interference in the operation of pregnancy centers.
In January of this year, Pennsylvania Department of Health Secretary Debra Bogen spoke at a “baby shower” at the state-sponsored center in Lock Haven named State Health Center to announce a “pilot” program purportedly aiming to “ improve the health of the Commonwealth’s mothers, babies and families” under the Josh Shapiro administration.
Democrat Shapiro has been unsupportive pregnancy centers. Within his first year in office, he removed funding from Real Alternatives, a longtime program that gives financial support to pregnancy centers. His attorney general later created a complaint form online inviting clients to report issues with pregnancy centers.
It seemed odd to those in the pregnancy help community that Shapiro suddenly wanted to create a program that does exactly what these centers have been doing for years.
It was especially puzzling to Summers who was working hard to open a new center in the very city Shapiro’s administration decided to use as a backdrop for its pregnancy help-replicating program.
“I was both surprised and unsettled, but also not surprised,” she told Pregnancy Help News.
Like other pregnancy help organizations, Pregnancy Resource Clinic’s care for clients has the overarching effect of fostering health in the community.
“The one-on-one care that we provide to pregnant mothers throughout their pregnancy and postpartum journey is known to help reduce the mortality rate in children and their mothers,” Summer said.
However, Summers said the PRC in Lock Haven and the state-funded pilot are different in an important way.
“I have to remember that our work at PRC has eternal value,” she said. “PRC opening up a clinic is not a pilot program.”
“There have been so many people who have poured into our efforts through funding, volunteer work, prayers, and encouragement,” said Summers. “We're not going anywhere.”
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She noted that even the building the new clinic is serving from was purchased by PRC with to the generosity of a family who saw the eternal value of the mission.
They of course work with secular service providers to meet the needs of families, Summers said, “But sometimes, because of our faith in Jesus, we can see the bigger picture and offer greater solutions.”
The Shapiro pregnancy center pilot is a $1.3 million dollar project that will provide government-subsidized pregnancy testing, prenatal vitamins, vital sign checks, educational opportunities, material assistance and referrals to other social service agencies.
Aside from the Shapiro program taking taxpayer dollars to fund the state program, pregnancy help organizations being largely privately funded and also serving not just material needs but the whole person, the difference between existing pregnancy help in Pennsylvania and the Shapiro administration’s efforts to replicate what pregnancy help centers have been doing for decades is the community tie and commitment.
“I think there is a concern when the government does things to the community rather than with it,” she said. “From my knowledge and perspective, the community's input was not considered.”
“Also, pregnancy centers have earned a “social license” to operate for the last 40-plus years by providing excellent, community-funded services proven to provide long-lasting change in our clients,” Summers said.
