Protecting College Women from Poor Guidance on Pregnancy

How should a college or university handle a student who seeks wisdom and direction regarding an unplanned pregnancy?  Many educational institutions think the only way to guide women is toward abortion. 

That is what one student found - see this heartbreaking, but moving account by one brave woman at an elite university.  She writes, "That I am alive today, and I am married to a lovely man, and I have children is an illustration of the strength, the power, and the grace of God." 

Cornell, J’accuse…! - Social Matter www.socialmatter.net The year is 1994. I am 19 years old. I am a sophomore at Cornell University. I am sitting in the office of a university official. I am in trouble. I don’t recall the details of how they got me. Was I retarded enough to go to the Health Center if I missed my period? …

College and university officials may see abortion as a solution that creates gender equality.  It is not, and it does indeed harm women, as well as their unborn babies.  (For a helpful understanding of this issue see A Christian Perspective on Gender Equality).  Abortion is merely one legal option in a host of women's rights (see The Rise and Fall of Women's Rights), and it is never the best option.  Fallacious notions like the one represented by the university official in this story show how many esteemed officials who guide students in major life decisions can clearly miss what is most critical in life and family restoration.  (It is therefore, easy to understand that women are left confused and unhappy – see Christianity, Feminism, and the Paradox of Female Happiness .) 

Furthermore, colleges and universities must get to a point that recognizes that abortion harms women - born and unborn (see The Challenges of Teaching Gender Equality in a World of Reproductive Gendercide ) and the pro-abortion view should not be the only perspective young women hear (but this does indeed happen - see The 'Echo-Chamber Effect' in Legal Education: Considering Family Law Casebooks).  Protecting college women must include an inclusive approach to their options whenever a crisis arises, particularly a crisis decision that can bring any woman great harm.

College women deserve better and more comprehensive guidance for the present and for their future - and so do their future families.