A vocal group of students at the University of California Berkeley is demanding the university use taxpayer dollars to fund an abortion clinic on campus.
LifeNews reported the UC Berkeley student government approved a resolution in March urging administrators to provide free abortions through the university health services. The students claim that better access to abortion will help female students to succeed.
However, not everyone is supportive of the on-campus abortion clinic. Members of the UC Berkeley Students for Life club said they were horrified by the proposal.
“This is exactly the kind of callous attitude that forces students to choose between their child and their education, which no student should have to do,” the club said in a statement. “The Students for Life club at Berkeley is dedicated to not only educating their peers on the atrocity of abortion but also offering tangible resources for pregnant and parenting students. We are willing and ready to support these students facing unplanned pregnancies so that they aren’t forced to choose between their child and their education.”
The pro-life group offers tangible resources for pregnant and parenting students through the Pregnant on Campus program.
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University administrators also seem unwilling to give in to the abortion activists’ demands. A spokesperson told CBS 5 in San Francisco that while the university supports women’s access to abortion, they believe there are plenty of medical professionals in the area already providing abortions.
WND reports that there are two Planned Parenthood facilities 3.7 miles and 6.6 miles from campus.
Aanchal Chugh, who sponsored the resolution, told Campus Reform she does not think students should have to pay for abortions. She said the money to pay for abortions on campus should come from administrators’ paychecks. The conservative news report also noted that because UC Berkeley is a public school, tax dollars would be used to fund the abortion clinic.
“The resolution does not expect students to pay for these services as I, and those who voted for it, believe that health is a right not a privilege,” Chugh said. “The university should be providing this right to all students.”
“We feel that student health is something that the administration has not been focused on,” Chugh told the CBS affiliate. “And it’s important for students to do well academically.”
On Facebook, Chugh also blasted people who oppose the measure: “Those who are condemning my bill because it is ‘immoral’ – having the right to live a healthy life is NOT immoral and every student should have access to safe and accessible abortions especially because being a student at Cal is already so demanding. […] This is a womxn’s [sic] issue, a students’ issue, and a humxn [sic] issue. If you do not support abortions, don’t get one.”
However, the Students for Life group on campus contended that the university’s primary function is education, not abortion.
“To suggest that they take a pay cut to fund student abortions is absurd,” the group said. “The student government at Berkeley exemplifies the lack of support and empowerment of women that is rampant throughout the abortion rights movement. Abortion is degrading to women, and the bill expresses a mentality that a woman’s ability to bear children is a crisis rather than an empowering act and a great contribution to society. That is not only dangerous and hurtful, but it stigmatizes pregnant and parenting students on campus.”
A push for more abortions is exactly what college campuses don’t need. Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion business in the nation, regularly targets college campuses to recruit volunteers, staff and clients. They also build many of their abortion facilities close to college campuses.
Through the Students for Life of America’s Pregnant on Campus initiative, students at Berkeley and other campuses across the U.S. are working to provide material and emotional support so that pregnant students do not feel forced to choose between continuing their education and raising their child.
