Church and campus
University of San Francisco's Catholicism clashes with the reproductive rights of its students.

By Michael Stoll

NESTLED IN THE heart of a liberal city, the religious University of San Francisco has suffered something of an identity crisis of late, as it tries to recognize students' reproductive rights from within the constrictive bounds of Catholicism.

It's a contradictory task, of course, and in trying to dodge criticism from both the right and the left, administrators at the 148-year-old Jesuit university have so far appeased neither, generating some curious quandaries in the process.

Last fall the otherwise strictly Catholic institution was forced by its interpretation of a court case to cover the cost of students' birth control under its insurance policy, although it has tried to keep quiet this apparent departure from church doctrine.

And even though student health advisers were recently reminded that they are permitted to advocate only abstinence and adoption, in practice, they say, they will provide referrals to abortion providers if students specifically ask.

Rather than quelling critics, the school's hybrid stance on abortion and contraception seems to have inflamed passions on both sides of a tempestuous national debate. Meanwhile, most students remain as oblivious to this theological feud as they are to the basic family planning information that college freshmen across the country – increasingly, even at Catholic schools – take for granted.

Genesis of controversy

The university was ambushed on its right flank in December. An Internet-based antiabortion newsletter "exposed" the school's student health Web page on pregnancy, which contained a hyperlink to Planned Parenthood.

The revelation caused a barrage of condemnation through e-mail and the Catholic press. Within hours the page was replaced with the one that remains today, stating that the information is "being reviewed." Student peer educators and staff were told by administrators that Catholic schools cannot facilitate abortion, which is a sin in the eyes of the church.

"What happens when a student comes to the university seeking advice on abortions?" USF spokesperson Gary McDonald said. "They're not going to get it here. This is a Catholic institution."

To students, that kind of talk gives a nod to church doctrine while still conveying a permissive "don't ask, don't tell" attitude. But a few said it smacks of what they see as the very worst of sins on a college campus: censorship.

The school's official policy is somewhat nuanced. McDonald maintains that counselors and nurses never were permitted to provide abortion or contraceptive referrals, per se. They are allowed to send students to outside agencies, including Planned Parenthood, but only if they're looking for health services such as a test for pregnancy or for a sexually transmitted disease.

Those subtle distinctions frustrate students like Jaime Gher. The 27-year-old law student, who heads the USF Women's Law Association, believes the administration is blocking discussion of family planning options among those who don't share the church's strict views. Only about 37 percent of the school's students are Catholic. Gher is a Presbyterian.

"When I thought to apply to USF Law School, I didn't realize that there would be religious prohibitions that would affect my life," she said. "It seems very hypocritical, and it's an affront to me as a woman. It's not in step with contemporary society."

Although USF students can get their birth control subsidized, they have to know exactly what questions to ask. Under the Women's Contraceptive Equity Act of 2000, California health insurance plans that offer prescription drugs to employees must also pay for contraceptives.

In 2001, Catholic Charities challenged the law and lost. An appeals court said religious-affiliated groups, including colleges, cannot invoke conscience as a reason for exemption, since not all workers share the organization's beliefs.

While the decision is being appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, the law remains in effect in the state. In addition, the change in the school's policies was pushed by an enterprising second-year USF law student named Jennifer Lynch, 31. Last August she read the fine print in a school-issued brochure that said students could get contraceptives through the student insurance plan.

At first the university denied it, saying the policy was a mistake, she said. But in the end she met with deans who agreed that they must honor the brochure to avoid legal liability.

Nearby St. Mary's Medical Center, which provides USF students with primary care, rigorously hews to the Catholic prohibitions. But Lynch learned she could go to an outside doctor to get a prescription for contraceptive pills and get it filled at a neighborhood pharmacy, both of which would be covered under the school's insurance plan.

In October she stood before her entire class of 95 students during lecture to announce her very first legal victory. Her classmates cheered. Yet other students still feel muzzled.

The price of doctrine

On March 12, at a student activities fair on campus, representatives handed out bags of health-related items, including sunscreen packets, information about drugs and alcohol, and a flyer titled "101 Ways to Make Love Without Doin' It." Among the suggestions: "play 'footsie,' " "trade class rings," and "share an ice-cream cone."

While those are nice thoughts, more than one student noted that in the 21st century, most other American universities distribute free health kits in which condoms are standard issue.

To those students, the contents of the bags begged questions: What role do Catholic schools play in teaching students about reproduction? Should they provide unbiased sex education alongside the abstinence-based preaching?

USF believes more religious guidance is the answer. McDonald said the school removed the controversial Web page because the information might be expanded to include, for example, pregnancy counseling in its university ministry.

The church hierarchy holds great sway, but little direct power, over Catholic colleges. For more than a decade Pope John Paul II has been saying that schools conflicting with church teachings on bioethics "cannot be endorsed with the character of a Catholic university."

"There is incredible pressure on American Catholic universities from the Vatican," said Rosemary Stasek, Mountain View city councilmember and California director for Catholics for Free Choice. "There has been serious talk among Catholic universities about to what extent does that impinge on their intellectual freedom and their need to have all viewpoints discussed in a vigorous atmosphere of intellectual debate."

USF is not alone in wanting to push the boundaries of that debate. Antiabortion crusaders at the Web site LifeSite (www.lifesite.net), which first condemned the university's Web site, later went after seven other Catholic institutions that had seemingly broken with tradition.

Georgetown University, Seattle University, Cleveland's John Carroll University, Boston College, and Santa Clara University all removed Internet links to groups advocating or providing abortions, said Father Charles Currie, president of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities in Washington, D.C.

"You have to be brazenly unfaithful to publicize your promotion of an abortion facility," LifeSite editor John-Henry Westen said.

Surprisingly, at least two schools have ignored the antiabortionists' alarm. Chicago's DePaul University said it will continue to offer internships with Planned Parenthood through the Sociology Department, to help "provide students with the opportunity to study all sides of complex issues." Loyola University, also in Chicago, maintains Web links to Planned Parenthood and the National Organization for Women, but posts a disclaimer saying not all online information is officially sanctioned.

No local outcry

Church officials in San Francisco have refrained from criticizing the university. Maurice Healy, spokesperson for Archbishop William J. Levada of San Francisco, said the church hasn't discussed sexual health programs with the university. In fact, the church rarely sees the need to intervene in university affairs.

"There are some people on this campus who say that USF is no longer a Catholic institution, but I think it's a very vibrant Catholic campus," said Paul V. Murphy, director of USF's St. Ignatius Institute, whose "good books" teaching model also became a focus of ideological infighting between conservative and liberal Catholic faculty two years ago.

"Certainly no one would inhibit a professor in a classroom or a student group from talking about these issues," Murphy said. "There are plenty of people who teach here who would readily express opinions that are opposite to those of the pope."

The university's ban on reproduction rights information is a disturbing trend to Mary Tschann, a sophomore majoring in politics. In helping to facilitate informal group discussions on health topics, she feels under constant pressure from the administration to limit the range of the conversation regarding reproduction.

"A general consensus of students and staff is that education must be the full truth, all options must be explored, and that nothing must be denied because it doesn't fit the ideology of a few," she said. "They're picking and choosing which truth will be sought, because they're being pressured by groups with loud voices."

Feminists seem an odd source of criticism to the Jesuits, the Catholic order that is most closely associated with community service and social justice. The Jesuits encourage students to make common cause with progressives and occasionally defy authority.

In November four USF students were arrested for trespassing in a protest at the School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Ga. USF is also in support of gay students and faculty, going against the grain of contemporary church teaching.

This issue of reproductive choices, though, is still quite taboo.

"It's sort of interesting that we get hammered from the left and the right at the same time," McDonald said. "But this is a Catholic, Jesuit university, and our stand should not come as a surprise to any student who comes here."