Nearly half of the largest colleges and universities in the United States offer school-sponsored health insurance plans that cover abortion, according to a new study from Students for Life of America.
The report, which surveyed the nation’s 200 largest postsecondary institutions as identified by the U.S. Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, found that 44 percent of these large universities offer coverage for elective abortions — those deemed medically unnecessary and often used as a form of birth control.
Almost half of those schools — including N.C. State University in Raleigh and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill — automatically enroll students in the abortion-providing coverage. Most of the schools surveyed are state-run and taxpayer-funded.
The pro-life student group initiated the nationwide study in response to a move in 2009 by the UNC system to mandate that most students not covered by another plan buy health insurance from their university. The university-provided plan covers up to $500 of the cost of elective abortions for each procedure, with a 20-percent deductible for in-network providers.
After complaints from pro-lifers, the UNC Board of Governors revised the plan to allow students who oppose abortion to opt out of the coverage, although they still pay the same premiums.
In the report, Students for Life also says that taxpayers are paying for university students’ abortions through federal grants to schools, such as Pell Grants.
“Forcing pro-life college students to pay for other people’s abortions is immoral and a violation of many students’ deeply held values and beliefs,” the report says.
A spokeswoman for the abortion provider Planned Parenthood told Carolina Journal last year that abortion is “part of a comprehensive health plan” and should be included in students’ policies.
David N. Bass is an associate editor of Carolina Journal.