Campus Pregnancy
Officials Struggle to Curb
i Unplanned Pregnancies
i A number of college women find out each year
that they're carrying more than credit hours
Despite educational programs, access to hirth
control and the AIDS scan*, unplanned preg
nancies among students continue to occur at a
steady rate
' The emotional and physical turmoil of stu
t dents male and female dealing with
a unplanned pregnancies is at least a slight inter
ruption 'it their studies For some students, an
unplanned pregnancy can mean an end to their
chance to earn a degree
Pregnancy Rales on the Rise?
About 115 to 40 pregnanes tests are done each
week at the student health center at the 1' of
•; Maryland, College Park, and 40 percent of
these tests are positive, said Mary Hoban. coor
i dinator of health services She added that 99
' percent of these pregnancies are unplanned
Of 15 health officials at large universities
polled in the fall, most said the number of pos
itive pregnanes tests has remained consistent
the past two years w hile some said they've seen
^ a decrease in campus pregnancies But because
not all college women who iiecome pregnant go
to their student health centers for testing off
i campus facilities and home pregnancy tests
I also are used schools are unable to record all
f campus pregnancies, and the actual numbers
! may lx- higher
weooran menu*, sexuumv education coorm
nator at the lof Illinois. ('hampaign-l’rhana.
said that "considering when* undergraduate
women are in their lives," she thinks most cam
pus pregnancies are unplanned
About 200 tests were positive this year at
I Auburn IV. and Terry Smith, a certified regis
\ tered nurse practitioner, said this rate is con
,! sistent with the number of positive tests at this
■ time last year
Student health centers at Stanford l' and
Indianal' both have seen a decrease -attribut
ed to the possible use* of other testing methods
or off-campus facilities - in the number of pos
itive pregnancy tests in the past several years
I)r .John Dorman, director of public relations
and outreach at Stanford, said the nundier of
I positive tests has gone down from 167 in 1986
to 126 in 1989 Dr Hugh Jessop. director of
Indiana's student health center, recorded the
most radical change 750 to 800 tests were pos
itive during the 1988-89 school year compared
to 950 during 1989-90
The Most Prevalent Choice: Abortion
Jessop said health professionals at II’ coun
sel women on all of the available options, but
,* the choice is up to each student.
Ef “More than half of the women we have are
' going to opt for abortion," he said.
This iiuiuIht is higher at other universities,
including the U of California, Los Angeles,
where 96 percent of pregnant college women
counseled choose abortion, said Amy Goldner,
UCLA marriage, family and child counselor
Mohan said IK) to 95 percent of pregnancies
at the U of Maryland end in abortion
While national statistics specific to pregnan
cy among college women are not available, a
survey of abortion patients conducted in 1987
the most recent national data In Stanley K
Henshaw and .Jane Silverman of The Alan
(iuttmacher Institute showed abortion rates
were highest among women ages lb to 19, and
the nuniliers dnsharply after age 24
And according to the study. 11 percent of all
abortions in 1987 were performed on women
attending school.
"School enrollment was positively associated
with abortion rates, except among women aged
15 to 19," Henshaw and Silverman wrote
After excluding teenagers and standardizing
for age differences, we found that the abortion
index among women enrolled in school was til
percent higher than that of women not enrolled
The desire to complete school is a common rea
son for seeking to terminate an unplanned
pregnancy ’
Aida Torres and Jacqueline Darroch Forrest,
other researchers from The Alan (Iuttmacher
Institute, also compiled results of the 1987 sur
vey of abortion patients, focusing on the reasons
the women decided to have abortions
"Three-quarters said that having a baby
would interfere with work, school or other
responsibilities, about two-thirds -aid thev
could not afford to have a child and halt said
they did not w ant to tie a single parent or had
relationship problems." Torres and Forrest
w rote “Slightly fewer than one-third of respon
dents said they had decided to have an abortion
because they were not ready tor the responsi
bility of having a child, liecau.se they did not
want others to find out that they were sexually
active or had become pregnant. or because they
were not mature enough to have a child
Fighteen to 29 percent of women of all ages
reported that their husband's or partner's
desire that they have an abortion influenced
their decision "
Education vs Responsibility
Health professionals at all of the universities
agreed that while education about birth control
and the consequences of sexual activity is
important, other factors, such as drains and
alcohol, contribute to the number of campus
pregnancies
“1 don't think you can talk about sex without
talking about alcohol," Hoban said “1 can pro
vide all the education I want, but if you're too
drunk to open the package or drunk enough not
to care, there's not much 1 can do."
Jessop agreed “Eduation is a great process
i to prevent unplanned pregnancy i, but alter a
few joints and a few drinks, all the education
in the world isn't going to matter," he said
“That's one of the things we try to point out to
students We try to get them to consider exactly
what they're willing to get into."
Smith attributes many of the pregnancies at
Auburn to sexual attitudes and incorrect or no
use of birth control.
"Most believe it's not going to happen to
them," Smith said “You ask the women if
they've had unprotected intercourse1 since their
last period, and they say yes Then you ask them
if they're trying to get pregnant, and they are
surprised you would ask
* .a. AS'A BAAftARA
hem. a senior at Ohm State l’
had a pretty good excuse lor miss
Higher spring quarter final exams
last year. In fact, facing a desk and
calculus equations instead of th*
hospital bed where she gave birth
to a 6-pound.- 10-ounce baby girl
mav have been an easier test.
:>ne naiTH*u mt* u.un *n*au aan ini'uuuimi.u
acter in her favorite book “To Kill a Mockingbird," and
held her the day after .'he was bom.
“She was beautiful," Shem said. “I was so proud ol
her I couldn't believe she was mine but she wasn i
mine. 1 rocked her for an hour and then it was time for
me to leave It's been over a year since the adoption and
not a day goes by that I don’t stop and say a little prayer
tor her I just want her to know that I love her"
Sherri had just started her senior year when she
found out she was pregnant She didn't want to drop
out of school, hut living m her sorority house was out
of the question So. she moved in with her sister and
brother-m-law and continued with her classes
When she told the baby's father, they both decided
that adoption was the best answer because he didn't
want his family to know, and he and Shem weren't
ready for marriage
Another sister ot Shem's knew alxiut a couple looking
for a baby to adopt Sherri contacted the lawyer who
described the adoption process and what would happen
to the baby after its birth.
"1 was now considered the birth mother, " she said
“I felt cheated It sounded so impersonal."
Shem said she wanted to find out as much as she
could about the adoptiv e parents >o she could find the
Ih'si possible home for her baby
“The parents had written a letter for the lawy er to
give me," she >aid. “1 felt an instant Ismd The adoptive
mother knew how 1 was finding She had miscarried in
her 'ixth month of pregnancy and knew what it was
like to lose a child. After reading the letter, 1 knew 1
was doing the right thing "
At first, attending classes was hard. Sherri said She
was afraid of w hat people would think, but she was glad
to see they treated her the same as they had before
The last time Sherri saw the baby's father was the
day he visited her in the hospital
“We went down to the nursery to see the baby, and
although he would never admit it, I saw him cry It was
then I realized how permanent my decision was."
Before leaving, she gave Jean Louise a Peter Rabbit
musical toy and a white coming home outfit for her to
be baptized m She also gave her a dress she had worn
as a little girl that her mother had saved, along with a
picture of herself w earing the dress
Through the lawyer, the adoptive parents have for
warded to Shem pictures of the baby, including one
taken on her first birthday wearing the dress Shem
had worn.
She said she still feels she made the right choice
Raised a Roman Catholic. Sherri said abortion was
never a consideration for her
"I could never have done that," she said "It s a baby
It s a human being What girls have to realize is that
there are agencies that will help them get through it."
or ('aria, an Indiana State C
'enior. having an abortion seemed
to I>e the only alternative
“I was a freshman in college. 18
years old,” ("aria said "I had
recently had my first sexual expe
rience. I met my boyfriend the
first week of school and every
thing happened really fast ”
“I even know the night l conceived,” she said “It was
the one single night we didn t use a condom ”
She was nervous when her period didn't come.
"I knew in the back of my mind.” Carla said. “In the
doctor s office. I felt sick, like I was going to throw up.
She (the doctor * told me about all the available options
and counseling services. She didn't judge me or pressure
me into any one option.
“I had to walk about a mile to pick up mv pap smear