Tuesday August 10, 2010
University of North Carolina to Force Students to Pay for Abortion-Providing Insurance
By James Tillman
CHAPEL HILL, North Carolina, August 10, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - This coming school year, students at the University of North Carolina who do not have or cannot afford their own private health insurance will be required to buy into a state-selected health insurance plan that funds abortions.
“The fact that North Carolina students are going to be forced to pay for elective abortions is appalling," said Kristan Hawkins, Executive Director of Students for Life of America, which discovered the abortion mandate. "Students should not be put in a situation like this in order to attend an educational institution."
"We demand that the North Carolina Board of Governors reverse their policy and remove the abortion mandate immediately. Paying for abortions should not be a pre-requisite to learning.”
The Pearce & Pearce policy mandated by the North Carolina Board of Governors provides up to $500 towards elective abortions. It costs students $744 a year, or $372 a semester.
Undergraduate students with at least six or more credit hours and graduate students with at least one credit hour who are in a degree-seeking program must purchase the policy unless they can show that they have some alternate form of health insurance.
Sarah Hardin, President of North Carolina State University's Students for Life group, said she was "dumbfounded" to learn that she and her classmates would be "forced to pay into a pool that will go to aborting the children of other North Carolina students."
LifeSiteNews (LSN) attempted to contact both the chair and the vice-chair of the North Carolina Board of Governors; no response has been received as of press time.
Mary Powers, Communications Director of Students for Life of America, told LSN that when one of their supporters contacted a member of the Governor's Board they were answered with just one word: "misinformation."
Nevertheless, abortion is clearly listed as a procedure that the student insurance covers.
Students for Life of America released a website today www.noabortioninhealthcare.com, which includes a petition against the abortion mandate.
According to Powers, however, the "situation in North Carolina is just the tip of the iceberg." She told LSN that Students for Life was launching an investigation into other states to see if they have similar policies.
To contact Hannah Gage, Chairman of the North Carolina Board of Governors:
