There is nothing more pro-woman than being anti-abortion, though the feminist movement makes the anti-abortion movement seem like a crusade against women. This is most evident on a college campus.
Planned Parenthood has performed over 1.9 million abortions since 2009. Around 79 percent of Planned Parenthoods are located within five miles of a college campus, and 44 percent of abortions involve college-aged women, according to research done by Students for Life of America. In the event of a crisis pregnancy on campus, Planned Parenthood is there to offer their services, which likely includes abortion.
Planned Parenthoods in Louisiana do not currently perform abortions, but they are building a complex in New Orleans to perform the procedures.
Young women aren’t educated about their other options outside of abortion or adoption, and that isn’t pro-woman. Pro-woman means telling college women it’s possible to be a mom and a student. Pro-woman is helping her make it possible.
Title IX offers specific protections against pregnancy discrimination, but many don’t know. A popular reason women have abortions in college is because they fear losing scholarships, missing classes or getting kicked out of organizations like sororities, according to information by Students for Life at LSU.
According to Title IX, “pregnancy discrimination is prohibited in admissions, hiring, coursework accommodations and completion, pregnancy leave policies, workplace protection and health insurance coverage in educational programs and activities.”
Scholarships remain even during unplanned pregnancy, and pregnancy leave is required for all educational programs and jobs. The act aims to make it possible to have a baby and finish school, but it doesn’t cover all the issues.
Finances are another main concern for women in a crisis pregnancy. They don’t feel they’ll have the resources to provide everything their baby needs, but there is still help for them. Organizations like Students for Life at LSU have several initiatives to provide tangible things mothers need for their babies, like diapers, clothes, pack n’ plays and cribs, and they also provide baby showers and clothing exchanges, Students for Life at LSU president Rachel Anderson said.
There also are 3,000 nonprofit pregnancy help centers across the country, which provide free pregnancy tests, counseling, free ultrasounds, parenting classes and material support. There are 8,000 federally funded community health centers across America that provide all the same services as Planned Parenthood, such as STD testing and treatment, pregnancy tests and routine exams, according to Students for Life of America.
Without Planned Parenthood, women aren’t going to lose all their health care because other organizations are there to help. This is what it means to be genuinely anti-abortion and pro-woman.
Students for Life at LSU wants to talk to women after they have an abortion, showing they don’t only care for the unborn but for women as well. As Anderson said, “The unborn is not more important than the woman. They’re both people. They’re equal. The woman is the secondary victim of abortion.”
Anderson explained that the group stands outside Delta Clinic of Baton Rouge in the afternoons in hopes one of the women who has had an abortion comes out and is willing to talk with them because often counseling only happens before an abortion, not after to address the psychological issues that follow, ranging from regret to depression.
These women still matter and need support after abortion. They matter just as much as their baby.
Babies aren’t crises or problems to be solved. They’re gifts to be cherished, and their mothers are people, not just pregnant women. The stigma toward women who get pregnant accidently needs to end, and there needs to be fewer upturned noses and more outstretched hands to help.
Anti-abortion supporters need to put down the protest signs and ask what they can do to help like Students for Life has done.
Caitlyn Atkinson is an 18-year-old mass communication sophomore from Pride, Louisiana. You can reach her on Twitter @catkin105.