An anti-abortion bill currently making its way through Congress would establish more financial aid and healthcare for pregnant students on university campuses in response to college-aged women having the highest abortion rates in the country, according to Lifenews.com, an anti-abortion news source.
The Elizabeth Cady Stanton Pregnant and Parenting Students Act of 2005 would establish a program providing $10 million for 200 grants to create a pregnant and parenting student services office on university campuses.
According to the congressional bill, the office would serve pregnant students by helping those who are considering adoption instead of abortion. The bill would also ensure that the institution and office provides family housing, child care, parenting education, flexible class schedules, maternity resources and post partum counseling.
Dan Bruey, director of the Student Health Center, said whether AU will receive a grant for a pregnancy and parenting student services office would depend on the needs of the students.
"The Student Health Center providers ensure that a pregnant student is informed of all of their options," he said.
According to Bruey, the Health Center has not had many incidents of student pregnancy-related visits. Only 20 of 20,000 total visits from Aug. 21, 2004, to Nov. 11, 2005, were coded for pregnancy, Bruey said.
Gay Young, the program director for women's and gender studies, said she feels this bill is a shift in a positive direction by the anti-abortion movement because if a student wants carry a baby to full term, she will have social services available to help her.
"[In the past], the anti-abortion forces have thought nothing about the consequences of women if they can't get abortions," she said.
The one fallacy of the bill is that not all of the women who obtained abortions based on the statistics actually attend college, Young said, which doesn't take into account low-income mothers who would need the support most. However, $10 million is a small amount of money and is not a bad way to spend taxpayer money, she added.
Young said she was not surprised that women chose abortion over giving birth due to their education and careers.
"Today, our employment system assumes workers are family-free," she said. "Having a child will make it very hard to work."
Emily Caponetti, president of the Democratic Women and Friends of AU, said $10 million is a lot of money that can be spent on educating young women about the proper use of contraceptives to prevent pregnancy.
"Through education, you are a empowering a women about her body and her options, and that is much more valuable," she said.
Molly Wilkins, a freshman in the School of International Service, said the proposed bill is a good alternative as long as abortions are still counted as options for pregnant young women.
"At the same time though, we have enough clinics in the area to go to, so I don't think that another clinic is necessary," she said.
Jill Knapp, a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences, also said there is no need for a student service office.
"I can't see that it would be unhelpful, but I don't see it being necessary as there aren't really that many pregnancies on campus that I know about," she said.
According a 2005 report by the Alan Guttmacher Institute, the research arm of Planned Parenthood, of the 1.29 million abortions in 2002, 52 percent were obtained by women under 25 years old, with 33 percent of all abortions obtained by 20-24 year olds and 19 percent from teenagers.
This report also stated that 75 percent of women obtain abortions because having a baby would interfere with their school, career or other responsibilities.
