DURHAM, North Carolina (LifeSiteNews) — Duke University signaled a bias against pro-life students when it sent out a campus-wide email condemning North Carolina’s ban on most abortions after 12 weeks, according to a concerned Duke student.
Last month, North Carolina’s Republican-controlled legislature enacted Senate Bill 20 over the veto of Democrat Gov. Roy Cooper. Effective next month, the bill will ban elective surgical abortions after 12 weeks and chemical abortions after 10, forbid distributing abortion drugs by mail, impose a three-day waiting period on abortions, and require women be offered an ultrasound of their baby, among other regulations.
In response to the measure, Duke’s Student Affairs office sent an email to all students declaring abortion to be “evidence-based, essential healthcare,” suggesting that “more restrictive laws have a disproportionate impact on low-income pregnant people and on communities of color,” and vowing to continue providing “high-quality care for all Duke students,” including Plan B and “any legally-permitted support for patients who need to make healthcare decisions with their health providers.”
“Pro-choice people believe that they are fighting for women’s bodily autonomy, which is an important human right. Pro-life people believe that they are fighting for the fetus’s right to life, which is also an important human right,” wrote Paige Brasington, a third-year J.D. candidate at Duke Law, in an op-ed for the student newspaper The Chronicle. “Because these two human rights are often in conflict, people can, in good faith, come to different conclusions on the issue. There should be room to advocate for and discuss both beliefs at Duke.”
“[B]y sending this email voicing opposition to North Carolina’s new law, Duke signals that many viewpoints are not welcome here,” she continued. “It also signals that the substantial minority (39 percent) of Americans who identify as pro-life do not have a place on this campus. Universities are supposed to foster communities that share and debate ideas. By taking an extreme position on this issue, Duke shuts down discussion and tells students and faculty who may disagree with the University that they are not welcome and that they must silence themselves if they wish to stay. This does not foster a healthy or safe learning environment.”
“If you are pro-choice and looking for support at Duke, it is easy to find like-minded faculty members to turn to,” Brasington noted. “But if you are one of the few students at Duke who hold an unpopular opinion on this issue or on many others, there is nowhere for you to turn. You are ostracized by your classmates and your professors. You stand alone on an island. Those of us with unpopular views at Duke already knew this, but this email twists the knife a bit deeper.”
Fourteen states currently ban all or most abortions, in response to which abortion allies are aggressively pursuing a variety of strategies to preserve abortion “access,” such as easing distribution of abortion pills, legal protection and financial support of interstate abortion travel, attempting to enshrine “rights” to the practice in state constitutions, constructing new abortion facilities near borders shared by pro-life and pro-abortion states, and making liberal states sanctuaries for those who want to evade or violate the laws of more pro-life neighbors.
President Joe Biden has called on Congress to codify a “right” to abortion in federal law, which would not only restore but expand the Roe v. Wade status quo by making it illegal for states to pass virtually any pro-life laws.
As for Duke, the university’s left-wing biases are nothing new. Last month, Education First Alliance released a report finding that Duke’s affiliated health system provides hormonal intervention and surgical referrals for gender-confused minors. In 2017, Catholic nurse Sara Pedro sued Duke University Hospital for allegedly discriminating against her religious and pro-life beliefs by requiring her to assist in abortions.