Students won’t have to pay for elective abortion coverage in university-provided health insurance plans after the University of North Carolina Board of Governors created an opt-out, but pro-lifers call it a hollow victory because the generic plan continues funding the controversial procedure.

As first reported by Carolina Journal Tuesday, a new system-wide policy mandates that students who aren’t covered by another health insurance plan purchase coverage through the South Carolina firm Pearce & Pearce. The plan covers elective abortions — those deemed medically unnecessary — up to $500 for each procedure, with a 20 percent deductible for in-network providers.

The health insurance mandate applies to students enrolled in UNC system colleges and universities provided they are taking six or more credit hours as undergraduates (or one hour for graduate students), are degree-seeking, and are eligible to pay the student health fee.

The UNC system is state-run and taxpayer-funded. Those who can’t afford the insurance can get the coverage free under their school’s financial aid program.

On Thursday, UNC System President Erskine Bowles said that students enrolled in the health insurance plan would be e-mailed and given a chance to opt-out of the abortion coverage.

“No student, therefore, will be required to have this coverage as part of our new health care plan, nor will they be paying for anybody else to have this coverage,” Bowles said.

Bowles also said that dropping the coverage wouldn’t lower students’ premiums, which average around $360 per semester.

“It has no effect on the cost, before or after,” he said.

But members of Students for Life, the national pro-life group that blew the whistle on the system’s plan earlier this week, say the concession doesn’t go far enough.

“The UNC System is still considering abortion to be health care. Abortion is not health care neither for the preborn child or his mother,” said Kristan Hawkins, the group’s executive director, in a statement. “Abortion should be removed from the UNC System completely.”

Hawkins also noted that universities get federal dollars for student aid. Students who qualify for assistance can get the plan, plus the abortion coverage, at no cost, meaning that taxpayer dollars would be funding the procedure, possibly in violation of federal law that bans publicly funded abortions.

Paige Johnson, a spokeswoman for the abortion-provider Planned Parenthood of Central North Carolina, called the Board of Governor’s decision “beyond fair.”

“Abortion is considered part of a comprehensive health plan, which is why more than 80 percent of private plans currently cover abortion,” she said.

David N. Bass is an associate editor of Carolina Journal.