A Catholic university in Seattle stopped recommending the abortion chain Planned Parenthood as a health resource for students this fall.
The Catholic Church teaches that aborting an unborn baby is wrong, and abortions are primarily what Planned Parenthood does. So, as The Seattle Times reports, Seattle University President Stephen Sundborg removed the abortion chain from an online list of health resources at the request of a pro-life student group.
“I made this decision, consistent with my own and other presidents’ previous practice, in my responsibility to publicly represent our university as Catholic and in reflecting the central teaching of the Catholic Church regarding abortion — specifically as a significant moral issue — and not any other services provided by Planned Parenthood,” Sundborg explained in a letter.
Sundborg said his decision follows the church’s teachings on the sanctity of human life. Planned Parenthood aborts more unborn babies than any other group in the United States. Last year, its annual report showed a record $1.6 billion in revenue and 332,757 abortions.Students for Life of America raised awareness about the issue earlier this fall. The pro-life organization also sent letters asking Augustana College in Illinois, Edgewood College in Wisconsin and other Catholic and Christian schools to remove the abortion chain as a resource from their websites, according to the report.
“They’re a Catholic university — they should be against abortions,” Students for Life spokesman Matt Lamb told the newspaper. “And there are resources available that aren’t as controversial. … They should just put more neutral county health clinics up, or a student health-care center.”
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Still, some students are criticizing Sundborg for ending the university’s promotion of the abortion group, the report states. Natalie Van Houten, a graduate student studying to become a midwife, slammed the change as “immoral.”
“In my job as a nurse at a health clinic, it is, in my opinion, unethical to counsel someone without all of their options if you’re in a health-care setting,” Van Houten said. “We have a duty to give people informed consent and give people all the information and resources needed … It is immoral to block them from making those decisions.”
But the university is Catholic, and the Catholic Church teaches that abortion is immoral. Killing an unborn baby is not legitimate health care, and abortion is Planned Parenthood’s “core mission.”
Seattle University is not blocking anyone from getting an abortion or finding information about it online. It simply is following its religious mission to uphold the sanctity of every human life by promoting life-affirming health care.
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