Will New House Bill Help Pregnant Students?

Colleges and universities would have to provide information to students who are pregnant about the support available to help them have and parent their baby, under proposed legislation that the House education committee will consider this week.

Sponsors of the Pregnant Students’ Rights Act, which is backed by several antiabortion groups, worry that pregnant college students can feel pressured into having an abortion to avoid academic failure. But some advocates say the legislation doesn’t go far enough to actually address the most pressing needs that students who are pregnant or parenting face, such as access to on-campus (or near-campus) childcare.

“It’s pretty ironic that the Pregnant Students’ Right Act doesn’t provide any new rights for pregnant students,” said Jessica Lee, a lawyer and director of the Pregnant Scholar, a resource center at the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco, that educates college students who are parents or pregnant about their legal protections.

The five-page bill would require institutions to distribute information about the existing rights of pregnant students as well as the accommodations and the resources available to them. In the draft of the House bill provided by the committee, that doesn’t include abortion services, and the Senate’s version specifically excludes them from the mandate. The legislation says that “an academic disparity” exists for college students who do not wish to terminate the pregnancy or who carry their pregnancies to term.

Democrats on the House committee are expected to oppose the bill at Wednesday’s markup, especially if it leaves abortion services off the list of required information, a House Democratic aide said.

Representative Ashley Hinson, the Iowa Republican who sponsored the House bill, has been working to pass the Pregnant Students’ Rights Act for years, but the legislation hasn’t moved forward until now. Senator Marco Rubio, the Florida Republican sponsoring the Senate legislation, said in a September news release that the bill would “empower more women to choose life.”

“Every life is precious, and college campuses should never make young women feel marginalized for choosing life,” Rubio continued in the statement.

Lee said that many pregnant students she’s talked with have felt that they had to choose between their education and pregnancy due to a lack of support on their campuses.

“That is just an absolute shame,” she said. “But I do worry that legislation that is slanted like this could lead to pressure to continue in pregnancy … I think the job of the educational institution should be to guarantee that right to an education regardless—not picking sides on what the students should be doing.”

Lee added that she’s concerned that instead of working toward concrete policy changes, the legislation will be “just another part of a culture war.”

The Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision to gut the federally protected right to an abortion put renewed attention on students who are pregnant or parenting. More than 20 percent of college students are parents, and college-age individuals are among those most likely to terminate a pregnancy. Women between the ages of 20 and 24 comprised nearly 30 percent of the abortions performed in 2021, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.

The Biden administration has proposed expanded protections for pregnant students as part of its overhaul of the ​​Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 regulations that prohibit sex-based discrimination at federally funded institutions. Those new protections would include outlining the type of accommodations students are entitled to and improving access to medical leave. Combating pregnancy discrimination also has been a focus of the department’s office for civil rights.

Lee said the proposed Title IX regulations would address a “huge portion” of the challenges facing pregnant students. They would help students access more of their rights under federal law and strengthen protections for this group while remaining neutral on abortion care. The regulations, first proposed in June 2022, have been delayed several times but are now expected this spring.

Legislation that would support parents after they have had a child and recovered from childbirth is “the real missing piece,” Lee said. A lack of support can lead students who are parents to leave school and deter pregnant students from carrying their pregnancies to term.

“If they actually provided new rights, I think that would go a long way to helping students feel like they could have a child and continue their education,” she said

A few states have expanded their support of student parents in recent years. Texas, for example, changed state law to give parenting students priority registration and ensure that pregnant students can take a leave of absence and return in good standing.

“Regardless of your stance on abortion, making sure that pregnant and parenting students have the support they need is really good for families,” Lee said. “It’s really good for the students, and it’s good for our society as a whole to make sure that these young and often vulnerable families have the support they need to get an education.”