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A Choice on Campus
Editors Desk
by Michael F. Flach
This week’s special issue takes a look at youth activities and colleges. There are many positive aspects to college life, but there also is a darker side that should not go unrecognized by parents and educators.
A 1996 Gallup poll found the college experience to be a "revolutionary
influence" on women’s views regarding abortion.
Before college, more women are pro-life than pro-choice. After four years
of college, 73 percent of women identify themselves as pro-choice. Abortion
rights activists know that college is the best place to chip away at pro-life
convictions.
What happens to women on college campuses that changes their outlook toward the unborn?
When Feminists for Life (FFL) speakers address a college audience, they ask, "Do you know anyone on campus who has become pregnant?" Audience members nod.
Then they ask, "Have you ever seen a visibly pregnant student on campus?" The nodding stops.
According to Planned Parenthood’s research arm, the Alan Guttmacher Institute,
approximately 10 percent of college-age women become pregnant each year.
What happens to all the pregnant women? They either have an abortion or
quit school.
Twenty percent of all abortions in this country are performed on college
women.
One northeast university provides a typical case study. Based on figures provided by the school’s health center and a nearby pregnancy care center, of 3,000 college women, 600 had pregnancy tests; 300 of these tests were positive; and six women had babies.
A pregnant woman would be hard-pressed to find an alternative to abortion on today’s college campuses. They constantly hear a one-sided message. Abortion is the answer. Don’t give up your dream of a college education. Make the "problem" go away.
The few women who decide to carry their babies to term receive little practical or emotional support from their parents, friends or college administrators. They leave school to have their babies. Many never return.
Another important influence on college campuses is the question of pregnancy resulting from sexual assault.
"The issue of rape is where the pro-life movement loses its future — college women," said Serrin Foster, FFL’s executive director . "The rape question is one of the first that FFL speakers here on college campuses."
FFL is putting a face on the survivors of rape and children conceived in rape. A new advertising campaign featuring real-life survivors will help students "Question Abortion," even in cases of rape and incest.
"If we can’t convince the next generation that abortion hurts women and that children have rights regardless of the circumstances of their conception, then we will lose them," Foster said. "By comprehensively addressing the real needs of these women and their children we can help save them from a second round of violence."
FFL hopes to challenge the anti-life mentality on campuses through its College Outreach Program. The program attempts to give women additional choices by involving a wide-range of participants: college students, faculty, administrators, counselors, campus clinic staff and service providers. FFL works with these people to provide practical resources for pregnant and parenting students so they can complete their education. FFL wants to challenge the assumptions that create this no-win situation for women and men.
To sponsor an expanded College Outreach Program kit for a pro-life student group on a college campus, call FFL at 202/737-3352. Kit sponsorship is $35. Kits are available for campus ministry centers, student health clinics and counseling centers. — M.F.F.
Copyright ©1998 Arlington Catholic Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
This article was published in the Arlington
Catholic Herald,
200 N. Glebe Rd., Suite 607, Arlington, VA 22203; Vol 23, No 39;
dated Oct 1, 1998, on page 4.
E-mail:
letters@catholicherald.com
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Circulation: 703/841-2565
A note from the Web Master:
It is noteworthy and honorable that some folks are willing to stand up for a ban on Partial-Birth Abortion. Let us not forget that Abortion is also murder. We must understand that murder is murder no matter the method. Because one method of abortion seems to be horrible does not justify the other methods. We should be horrified and sickened by any Abortion regardless of the method. The Fifth Commandment spells it out clearly: "Thou shalt not kill." A fetus is a person, a human being with a God given soul. Imagine the pain the Lord must feel when any Abortion occurs. Please contact both of your Senators and Representative to let them know how horrified you are that Abortions are legal and to stop Partial-Birth Abortions and all other Abortions as soon as possible.
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