Loyola not providing for pregnant students

Have you ever seen a pregnant student on campus?

This question was first posed to me, along with fifteen other students, at a Loyola Life meeting the fall of my freshman year. A couple of people said they had, but most of us agreed that we hadn't ever seen a visibly showing student at Loyola. Based on observation, one would think Loyola students simply don't get pregnant.

And yet the Allen Guttmacher Institute, Planned Parenthood's own research organization, reports that 50 percent of women obtaining abortions in America are under age 25. Thirty-three percent are age 20 to 24 and, likely, many of them are students at universities like Loyola.

Are Loyola students not having sex? Or is it more likely that a student, upon discovering she is pregnant, either a) drops out of school, takes a semester or year off to have her child and faces enormous financial and social difficulty in returning, or b) has an abortion so that she might be able to continue her education and make something of her life?

 Isn't it reasonable to assume that at least a handful of Loyola students each year get pregnant and are forced to make some very difficult decisions? The plural of anecdote isn't data, but I myself have known two students who've gotten pregnant. One took a semester off to have her child and the other had an abortion. Neither is at Loyola anymore, although they did not graduate. Last fall I did meet one student mother, but I have not seen her or her child since.

It is easy to see the reasons why a student would feel daunted by trying to continue both her pregnancy and her education. It would be extremely difficult for a woman to attend classes in the latter half of her pregnancy.

Doctor's appointments are timely and expensive. The dorms are not exactly the environment a woman needs to carry a healthy pregnancy to term. Pregnancy is a sensitive issue and many women would not feel comfortable walking around visibly pregnant on our campus.

But no woman should have to choose between her education and her pregnancy. No woman should have to go against her own morality so that she might finish her degree. It is my opinion that greater resources for pregnant students, alongside university policies sympathetic to pregnancy, are necessary at Loyola.

 Last month, Loyola Life, LUCAP and the Women's Initiative Organization co-sponsored a forum on resources available for pregnant women at Loyola. This event was well attended and featured six middle to high-level members of the administration.

 I learned there's actually a lot more available on our campus in terms of referrals to adoption agencies and counseling than I previously thought. University Ministry is a particularly knowledgeable and compassionate resource.

But some areas, such as RA training on how to handle crisis pregnancy and affordable, accessible childcare, are lacking. It is my understanding that there is no supplementary financial aid for students whose parents decide to quit paying for school because their daughter got pregnant or cut off funding if she doesn't get an abortion. And very significant is the fact that almost no students know what resources are available to them.

The administration urgently needs to publish an official pamphlet outlining school policies and resources available to pregnant students, with a corollary webpage and make it available in convenient locations on campus.

As a Catholic, Jesuit university seeking to combat abortion and promote a "culture of life," the greatest thing we can do is care materially and spiritually for a pregnant student in need. The worst thing we can do is preach a pro-life message and not bother.



Calvin Monley is an English

junior. He can be reached at

cmmonley@loyno.edu



In My Opinion is a weekly column

 open to any Loyola student. Those

 interested in contributing can contact

letter@loyno.edu