Posted on 05/05/2013 8:26:38 PM PDT by Morgana
Last week, Yale announced that its student health plan will cover sex-reassignment surgery for students, deeming it an important part of “equal-access” health care.
This might shock anyone who doesn’t follow academia, but I wasn’t the least bit surprised. This is just the latest of seemingly endless efforts by colleges to accommodate the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) student community.
“We hope that this represents a commitment to catch up to our peers in terms of offering transgender students an equitable student life and health care experience,” Gabriel Murchison, a member of Yale’s Resource Alliance for Gender Equity, told the Yale Daily News.
While offering coverage for sex changes is extreme, many campuses offer gender-neutral housing with the same goal in mind: to make the college experience more comfortable for gay and transgender students. My own Ohio University set aside gender-neutral dorm space back in 2011, and the student newspaper praised this decision as a “progressive step,” which was mostly meant “to accommodate those students who identify as transgender.” (No one seems to have conducted any research to see how many transgender students were actually enrolled at OU.)
And you know what? I’m okay with that. Cost issues aside, I’m glad that colleges are reaching out to students who struggle to find acceptance in the “real world.” Unfortunately, they show no such concern for another demographic that could use support on campus: pregnant students.
“I felt…pitied by the faculty,” says Lauren Pope, now a married mother of four living in Austin, Texas. “There was definitely an undertone of disapproval.”
Lauren was a freshman at Salem College when she found herself unexpectedly pregnant. She knew she wanted to carry the pregnancy to term and marry the baby’s father. But it soon became clear she had another choice to make: a baby or a degree.
“There was no on-campus housing for married students,” says Lauren. “Since I’d have to live off campus, my scholarship was cut. They actually reduced it by more than just the amount that covered housing, so my out of pocket costs were a lot higher. There were no services of any sort for day care.” She had no choice but to leave Salem and transfer to a local college in Austin.
Considering their lack of resources and support, is it any surprise that a third of all abortions in the US are performed on college-age women? There’s an office of LGBT Affairs on nearly every campus. Where is the resource center for pregnant and parenting undergrads?
I decided to call Ohio University and find out. First was the student health center. Did they offer any sort of prenatal care for students?
“No,” they told me. “We have a gynecologist on staff, but for pregnancy, they’d have to be referred out.” Since OU is in a rural area, this could mean a pregnant student has to travel considerable distance to see a doctor.
I called the housing department. Did they offer any on-campus housing for parenting students? The employee who answered the phone seemed a bit baffled that I’d ask such a weird question, and put me on hold to find out. (Unsurprisingly, the answer was “no.”)
“We know that young women, especially students, who become pregnant, are directly targeted by Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry,” Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life, told me. “Often, there is nowhere for her to live on campus after she is ‘outed’ as being pregnant and there is no housing available for her on campus after the baby is born; no daycare options, no changing tables in the bathrooms, or lactation rooms. “
That’s a striking contrast to the LGBT community, which has demanded—and received—gender-neutral housing and gender-neutral bathrooms on many campuses. Hawkins said it’s time for pro-life students to start speaking up.
“In many universities today, the administration has never been asked to provide accommodations for pregnant and parenting students, so they have never thought about it,” she said. “We want to force administrations to think about these things and how equal protection is guaranteed to every student, even those who are pregnant.”
Colleges roll out the red carpet for LGBT students. But pregnant students receive a very different, unspoken message: “You’re not welcome here.”
It’s time for that to change. For ideas on how you can reform your campus, visit www.studentsforlife.org.
The Culture of Death has no tolerance for babies.
When I was in college, a friend and co-worker had an unexpected pregnancy. By the time I talked with her, she had already been to Planned Pregnancy. It took some effort, but I got her a lot of information about on-campus child care and parental support, along with convincing her that she should talk with her parents and her boyfriend. She kept the baby and discovered that the father was a good man who was there for her — along with his parents, who helped pay for her school.
What gets me is that there are very few people who really want to kill their child or grandchild, yet there is an entire industry devoted to it.
Feminists for Life has done some work on this, meeting with college students and administration to get them to provide reasonable way to help pregnant students.
I went to a talk by Serrin Foster of FFL once, and she pointed out that, after WWII, a lot of colleges had married student housing, and couples went through college together, while starting their families.
Now, it is assumed that young people are not competent to do that. They need to graduate, get their career started, buy a house, etc., before having children.
She asked, if the people after WWII could handle young adulthood, why can’t students do that now?
Did the father marry her?
Let us see, they allow student run porn mags, on campus bars, co-ed dorms and encourage sexual liberation and then get upset if a girl gets pregnant.
Crazy people.
I went to a talk by Serrin Foster of FFL once, and she pointed out that, after WWII, a lot of colleges had married student housing, and couples went through college together, while starting their families.
Now, it is assumed that young people are not competent to do that. They need to graduate, get their career started, buy a house, etc., before having children.
She asked, if the people after WWII could handle young adulthood, why can’t students do that now?
The book and gift shops in the nearby university town sell little gems such as "Position of the Day" and novelty trinkets and garments that would have been more appropriate at a bridal shower not so long ago. It's assumed the kids are having sex, but a FAMILY? WHOA wait a minute!
"Married student housing" is still there but not talked about, it's a mile or so away. It might go the way of the old WWII-era "temporary" buildings on campus.
Yup. It’s crazy all right. Not teaching kids cause and effect.
More like, Brave New World, leftists deny there are consequences for their perverted beliefs
Okay, hold up a minute there. There are no less then 5 Ob-Gyn clinics in Athens Ohio proper.
I know they want to paint any place with less then a half million people as a bunch of toothless rubes but honestly there actually are services available outside the big city. They even have a honest to goodness hospital there and the staff hardly ever blows smoke and shakes rattles to scare off the evil spirits any more.
“There are no less then 5 Ob-Gyn clinics in Athens Ohio proper.”
Wait a second. They may be gynecologists but that does not mean they are obstetricians. A lot of gynecologists are not doing the obstetrics due to insurance rates being to high. That means you can go to them for pap smears but once you’re pregnant that’s it they don’t treat you. About the only thing they’d do is give you the pregnancy test. Thank you very much John Edwards.
Birth control has been around for what, 100 years for condoms and 40 years for the Pill. And people STILL can't figure out how to use them. Maybe they should think about what they hell they're doing before moving out to rural area and getting knocked up.
I think if they aren’t ready to have a kid, don’t do IT.
So much for women's rights.
Funny thing is, I was pregnant for most of my last year of college. It did get some weird looks from some parents during accepted student open house, but since I was married and living off campus, it wasn't an issue.
I did have one prof who worried every time I sneezed though. He was so worried about me popping the baby out early. It was funny......
George H W Bush and Barbara were married at Yale as I remember, and had a child there.
Usens don't hardly call fer da birthing lady at'all no more.
The comment was ignorant and I am more then a little tired with the assumption that civilization ends at the west side of the Hudson.
“... she kept the baby...”
God Bless you for giving her all the good reasons to keep her child. I have the feeling that a lot of people were giving her reasons TO have an abortion and YOU gave her reasons NOT to. You saved a life... there is a gold star next to your name in heaven!
Which also applies to the elderly. I just received this report of a Texas "Right for Hospitals to Deny Care Act" which the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons opposes.
"But he that sinneth against me [God's wisdom] wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death." (Proverbs 8:36)
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