Study: Many College Campuses Are ‘Failing’ Pregnant and Parenting Students

Many college campuses are “failing” to support their pregnant and parenting students, despite findings that many college students are pregnant or have children, a study from Students for Life Action’s (SFLA) Demetree Institute for Pro-Life Advancement revealed.

“Most college campuses aren’t getting a passing grade on support for pregnant and parenting students. The Demetree Institute for Pro-Life Advancement’s recent case study found that the examined schools had only a 50 percent average for life-affirming accommodations, getting a clear ‘F’ in supporting families,” Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins said in an emailed statement. 

“Is it any wonder that Planned Parenthood preys particularly on this demographic? When campuses fail to be life-affirming, they unknowingly become complicit with the abortion industry push, telling expectant mothers that help is not on the way,” Hawkins added. 

The institute partnered with two other SFLA initiatives, including The Campaign for Abortion Free Cities (CAFC) and Standing With You (SWY) to study 131 colleges and universities across the country from November 1, 2022, to January 31, 2023. The schools examined were within 15 cities that already had a CAFC presence, including: Allentown, PA; Jackson, MS; Cincinnati, OH; Chapel Hill, NC; Dallas, TX; Denver, CO; Indianapolis, IN; Naples, FL; Omaha, NE; Phoenix, AR; Puyallup, WA; Rochester, NY; St. Louis, MO; Sacramento, CA; and St. Paul, MN.

The schools were rated on a five-point scale based on five categories of accommodations for pregnant and parenting students including:

• Housing Policies (reasonable accommodations for pregnant/parenting students and/or family housing available/recommended)
• On-Campus Resources (lactation rooms, diaper decks, maternity parking, and on-campus childcare)
• Financial Assistance (grants, scholarships, financial aid)
• Medical Attention (health coverage, recommendations to pregnancy resource centers, campus medical center performing pregnancy tests, etc.)
• Published Classroom Policies (clear accommodations such as makeup exams or priority registration)

To find out if schools provided such accommodations, the Institute scanned their websites and made phone calls to school directors to confirm their findings, according to SFLA.

Key Findings

The study found that most schools only achieved 2.5 stars, or 50 percent, based on its five-point accommodation scale. Only one school, Texas Woman’s University, achieved a five-star perfect score.

The study found that the most common accommodations offered (80 percent) was providing pregnant students with referrals to local healthcare providers.

The least commonly offered accommodations were scholarships and maternity parking, both at 18 percent.

Fifty-nine percent of colleges and universities included in the study allowed pregnant students to live in dorms. Fifty-four percent offered diaper checks, 58 percent offered lactation rooms, and 21 percent offered family housing. Forty-one percent of schools evaluated offered on-campus childcare. Fifty-five percent offered pregnancy testing and 54 percent offered STD/STI testing, the study found.

The study notes that at the time of publication, 13 percent of the schools involved in the study either “enacted substantive changes to transform their campuses into more inclusive environments or provided written commitment to pursue enacting changes.”

“As we’ve seen already through engagement with Institute researchers, campuses will reform themselves after being prodded to do so — and that’s where the Pro-Life Generation comes in,” Hawkins said. “Our research has identified problems within many schools, and now our students know where to focus their efforts. With these findings, we’ll be strategically fighting for students with families to be better supported.”   

The Institute further emphasized that colleges offering support to pregnant and parenting students gives them more choices, rather than funneling vulnerable students to abortion clinics.

“As detailed by a previous study conducted by the Demetree Institute for Pro-Life Advancement, with the unique challenges that pregnancy can bring, college students can be susceptible to the marketing practices of abortion vendors, such as Planned Parenthood,” the study reads. “In the absence of the necessary supportive resources for pregnant and parenting students outlined within this study, a college woman in an unplanned pregnancy situation can find herself stuck between choosing life for her child or continuing her education, when they should be empowered and supported to choose both.”

The Institute previously found that 87.6 percent of 563 Planned Parenthood facilities in operation are located within five miles of a college campus. 

Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Twitter @thekat_hamilton.