August 13, 2010
On Thursday August 12, Students for Life of America received a response from the University of North Carolina (UNC) Board of Governors. This is in reaction to SFLA’s grassroots campaign against the new forced student abortion health care policy at the University of North Carolina.
In response to this national controversy, the UNC System has announced that they will allow students opposed to abortion to “opt-out” of paying for abortion coverage. See the full UNC Board of Governors statment.
The announcement by the UNC System shows the impact grassroots activism can have in effecting national issues such as this one. However, it is not a victory. The UNC System is still considering abortion to be health care. Abortion is not health care neither for the preborn child or his mother. Abortion should be removed from the UNC System completely.
In addition, there is another issue of national significance that has yet to be addressed. Federal grant money is directed to accredited colleges and universities from U.S. taxpayers through the Federal Student Aid Program. Student eligibility for federal grants is determined by the difference in the student’s ability to pay and the total “cost of attendance” for the school. As stated by the UNC system, the cost of their abortion health care plan, if the student chooses to keep abortion in their plan, is added to the student’s “cost of attendance” calculation. This in turn, increases the student’s need for federal funds. Because of this increase in need additional federal funds could be directed to the student to help cover this increase in cost.
This is using federal taxpayer money for abortion health care. This issue needs to be addressed by the UNC Board of Governors. Abortion should be removed from the UNC System completely!
Please go to our No Abortion in Health Care Website to sign our petition and email the Chairman of the North Carolina Board of Governors to express your outrage. If you have already signed our petition, please continue to check back with our website every day to get the latest information about this effort and how you can stay involved.