By Dave Andrusko
As they say, I read with interest a story in the Daily Mail about pro-abortion Vice President Kamala Harris who yesterday “convened university presidents on Monday to discuss reproductive health with the overturn of Roe v. Wade…”
During the round table discussion, the Vice President said, “We must trust the women of America to make those intimate decisions for themselves,” according to Katelyn Caralle.
The meeting brought eight college presidents to the White House. The meeting was closed but “the vice president and the presidents offered comments summarizing their concerns to the public before the start of the meeting,” Inside Higher Ed’s Meghan Brink reported. Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, “who spoke with Inside Higher Ed after the meeting, said it was, ‘really powerful and productive.’”
Needless to say, the primary focus was to how to expedite abortions for campus co-eds. They discussed how to navigate the legal waters now that the states will be free—or freer—to pass productive pro-life legislation. According to Brink
“In Oregon there may be relative safety but college students are vulnerable to having their rights undermined simply by leaving the state to return to their hometowns to engage in internships, or conduct research elsewhere in the United States,” said [Audrey] Bilger of Reed College.
Other legal issues that were raised were the question of what qualifies as aiding and abetting as far as university staff helping students gain access to abortion in states where it is now illegal, and student privacy rights.
Mitchell said, “The biggest challenge that schools’ faculty, staff, and students face today is the confusion and uncertainty around a 50-state patchwork quilt of varying laws and guidance that frankly has only become more complex and more chaotic with the Dobbs decision.” He added, “The clock is ticking. Every campus and every university in America [must] figure out what can and cannot be done to support students, faculty, and staff in particular, to answer the questions whether their students do or do not have access to the full range of reproductive health.”
