Where Life Is Beautiful!
MEET FIRST RESPONDER FOR LIFE:
Jacqueline Ke y, M.D.
Dr. Jacqueline Kelly spent her career as a practicing pediatrician serving Sarasota’s little ones. Her life’s work tells a story about nurturing tiny lives and changing perspective.
“During my thirty-five years in private practice as a pediatrician my perspective evolved. Early in my practice I was not aligned with the pro-choice perspective, but I wasn’t fervently pro-life either,” shares Dr. Kelly.
So, what influenced the shift in Dr. Kelly’s mindset?
“I worked with patients in a neonatal intensive care unit–NICU–and I saw babies born as early as twenty-two weeks. I handled tiny preemie babies. If people could see the perfection of the human baby in the womb, no one would call an unborn baby a “blob of cells” at any gestation point. Seeing the preemies changed my perception about abortion and inspired me to become active in pro-life service.”
When Dr. Kelly isn’t volunteering as a First Responder for Life teaching SMPC clients about nutrition and pregnancy, you might find her treating Sarasota’s little ones at CenterPlace Health clinic as well as serving on the Healthy Start board.
“God placed a desire in me to work with vulnerable people and families who struggle in life and need extra help, kindness, and respect to get healthy and on their feet. Sarasota Medical Pregnancy Center provides the bridge for mothers and fathers to reach a healthy life for themselves and their babies and I’m blessed to support them and to share my time with them!”
FIRST RESPONDER FOR LIFE:
Lauren E io
MSW, Behavioral Health Therapist
“I’m impressed by people’s resilience. I counsel emotionally maxed-out women right after getting the news. I meet with women who live inside tragic life situations who now teeter deciding life or death for their unborn baby.
People think teens are the common client but women between 18 and 30 actually are. I didn’t expect to be counseling married women with children. Sadly the “inconvenience” of another baby can tempt women to consider abortion.
If I could share one experience I have with abortion-minded/vulnerable women, it is how often I hear ‘I don’t want to abort my baby—but I have no choice.’ This sounds nothing like the pro-abortion rhetoric I hear—‘Abortion empowers women to make their own decisions.’ No! It doesn’t empower women–it strips them of their self-esteem and weakens them. I see women trembling in desperation when they contemplate the inhumanity of terminating their baby.
Women come to SMPC in their own life phase and it requires all of my training and experience to meet SMPC’s clients where they are now. SMPC serves everyone—different ages, ethnicities, and socio-economic stratas. I see women in their fragility, and I absorb some of their energy. My training prepared me; but working with these women still affects me. I’m thankful I know to treasure and practice self care and to lean into my faith in God. I exercise boundaries and protect my time off. SMPC’s daily morning staff meeting is priceless—we connect to pray. We pray for one another, clients, and donors. This unity energizes me for the day ahead.”
All photos are of actual SMPC clients, volunteers, and staff.
SARASOTA
From Jennifer Carey,
MEDICAL PREGNANCY CENTER’S CEO
Hello, friends and generous supporters,
The day after Hurricane Helene bore down on our community, a few SMPC staff made it to the office. A young married Cuban couple, determined to terminate their pregnancy, walked in the door. Sarasota Medical Pregnancy Center’s First Responders for Life welcomed the new clients and offered judgment-free help. They knew a tiny life teetered in the balance.
Thanks to the unwavering support of our SMPC donors, these First Responders for Life were present that morning. Your generosity allows us to continue life-saving work in the face of adverse circumstances.
Many of you already support SMPC on a monthly basis, and many of you make individual gifts. A few of you may be new to the Center and are considering supporting our work for the first time.
To inspire your end-of-the-year gift, several supporters have pledged to match your donation up to $44,500 by December 31st. The match is automatically applied.
Thank you for making your gift to Sarasota Medical Pregnancy Center today.
The work we do because of supporters like you, allows for top-level medical care—all at zero cost to our clients. SMPC provides critical, customized gap care to vulnerable women until they connect with an established medical provider. As a wrap-around women’s service clinic, your giving helps us provide essential and high-quality services.
Medical Services Behavioral Health Counseling
Social Services Navigation Educational Opportunities
Relationship Coaching for Men and Couples
Sign Up Today.
Become a Monthly First Responder for Life.
Commit to saving tiny lives and the mothers and fathers who want to raise them. Look inside the attached remittance envelope for suggested monthly sustainer giving levels.
Monthly donors provide financial stability.
SMPC’s doors swing open to everyone—the at-risk and underserved, the frightened and tempted to abort—the women who need to be assured that they are strong enough in an unplanned or unexpected pregnancy to become the best mother for their child.
Back to the young couple…
While the young woman joined Bethany Spenn, nurse practitioner, and Elaine McFarland, nurse manager, for an intake visit, Brad Mason, Men’s & Couples’ Coach, welcomed her husband into the Man Cave for a coffee and chat.
Hurricane Helene didn’t stop our team from coming into the Center that morning. Through compassionate care and respect, this couple left with life-affirming thoughts about parenthood. The woman soon returned for a cost-free ultrasound, along with her friend with whom she excitedly shared SMPC’s services.
Thank you, friends, for demonstrating your commitment to tiny lives and the moms who carry them. I hope you will join SMPC as a monthly partner to sponsor moms and babies in 2025. Let’s stand together in the gap for tiny lives and their families.
God bless you, and may you have a wonderful holiday season.
For Life,
Upcoming Events
Tour the SMPC Campus—Open House Date
Join us as we recognize January as Sanctity of Life month with our annual For Life! Open Campus invitation on January 22, 2025 —9:00 a.m.–11:00 a.m. Please RSVP: events@sarasotapregnancy.com or 941-702-9974
SAVE the DATE
The 2025 Life Is Beautiful! Gala February 27th & 28th at The Ora. Registration details coming to your mailbox soon!
The energetic Dr. William Lile—"The ProLife Doc" will be the keynote, speaking about life inside and outside of the womb.
Dr. Wi iam Lile
"THE PROLIFE DOC"
Thank you for voting No on Amendment 4!
Thank God Florida voters protected women and their babies while preserving the state's constitution.
Mary Swain, M.D.
Dr. Mary Swain invested her medical career in radiology. She served quietly behind the scenes searching for the need-to-know bits of information to help diagnose and treat women’s health concerns.
“Early in medical school I was included in a medically-prescribed abortion for a woman with Lupus. My research indicated that the abortion was not medically necessary, but ultimately she submitted to the procedure. The incident stayed with me. I gradually became active in pro-life support, as a donor and now through volunteerism at Sarasota Medical Pregnancy Center,” Dr. Swain.
“At SMPC I make client follow-up calls. Sometimes I unexpectedly learn the client decided to abort her baby and this is the first she’s sharing the news. Time sort of stops—she’s often silent and I wait for her voice. I hear the sadness in her soul and thankfully I can say more than ‘I’m sorry’. I can offer incredible after-abortion support care at SMPC.”
Dr. Swain also understands the importance of early OB ultrasounds.
“We know how important ultrasound images can be for undecided clients. But early ultrasounds also provide vital information for the OB-GYN. It’s critical that pregnancies are accurately dated and if present, abnormalities identified early. Most clients do not have cost-free medical support options in the first trimester, especially at the level SMPC provides.”
When asked to share a word with SMPC’s donors, Dr. Swain shared, “Anyone can join the SMPC First Responder for Life team—just step in with your prayer, time, and financial support. Together with the great SMPC staff, we save tiny lives and the parents who care for them.”
