Abortion and the Catholic University Student

There was a recent article suggesting that women at Catholic colleges and universities were more likely to abort.

The study concludes that there are several possible explanations but it is more than coincidence that I saw this student from St. Catherine's parading her school sweatshirt at a table in the Planned Parenthood parking lot on Ford Parkway in St. Paul on Good Friday. She was passing out literature and buttons to the pro-death supporters counter-demonstration the pro-life walk talking place in front of the clinic.

The College of St. Catherine's is about 3 blocks north of Planned Parenthood's location. It shouldn't come as a surprise either that the same St. Kate's has a reputation for, shall we say, being "less than orthodox" when it comes to teachings of the Church.

A new study conducted by Amy Adamczyk, assistant professor of Criminal Justice at City University of New York, found that female students at private,religious schools and colleges are more likely to have an abortion than their public school counterparts. According to Life News,women at Catholic institutions had abortion rates similar to students at other religious institutions in the study.

“This dangerous anti-life trend at Catholic educational institutions confirms what Pope Benedict XVI has reiterated many times, that there is an underlying crisis of faith among young people that is not being adequately addressed even by Catholic educators,” said Patrick J. Reilly, President of The Cardinal Newman Society (CNS).
“We observe today a timidity in the face of the category of the good and an aimless pursuit of novelty parading as the realization of freedom,” Pope Benedict told Catholic educators gathered at The Catholic University of America in April 2008.

“…[P]articularly disturbing is the reduction of the precious and delicate area of education in sexuality to management of 'risk', bereft of any reference to the beauty of conjugal love,”

Adamczyk’s findings echo a CNS-sponsored study published in November 2008 and titled “Behaviors and Beliefs of Current and Recent Students at U.S. Catholic Colleges.” The CNS study found that most Catholic colleges have little positive impact on the faith and values of students. In particular, CNS reported that nearly 1in 5 students at Catholic colleges knew another student who had or paid for an abortion

The rest of the article can be read at the Cardinal Newman Society website.