Congress Demands Colleges Protect Student Parents, Foreseeing Rise in Pregnancies
Universities might soon be forced to expand accommodations for pregnant and parenting students, an often overlooked population.

College campuses are designed for 18-year-olds who are claiming independence from their families for the first time — not for students becoming parents themselves.
Yet universities might soon need to expand accommodations for pregnant and parenting students, an often overlooked population that experts expect will only grow following the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Higher education institutions “are woefully underprepared to handle a sharp increase in pregnant and parenting students,” according to a coalition of 60 Democrats in Congress, who are asking the Department of Education to clarify specific protections for pregnant students under President Biden’s proposed Title IX rules. “Creating additional barriers for students to access reproductive care and, in effect forcing many students to carry pregnancies to term, would likely prevent students from feeling safe on campus, hinder their ability to access equitable educational opportunities, and even interfere with their completion and graduation plans.”
The coalition demands the department increase oversight of students who are pregnant, parenting, or obtaining an abortion to safeguard them from disciplinary or legal action, especially in states with abortion bans.
Although Title IX requires universities to provide pregnant students with accommodations and time off for medical needs and prohibits discrimination against them, universities have long neglected these mandates.
“We hear from pregnant students as well as parenting students constantly that they’re not getting the support they need and in some cases are actively being pushed out by their schools,” the director of an advocacy group for pregnant university students, the Pregnant Scholar Initiative, Jessica Lee, said.
Nearly a quarter of all undergraduate students are raising children, according to PSI. They are 10 times less likely to graduate from college on time than their peers without children, and are often forced to retake classes or withdraw from school entirely.
Ms. Lee recounted reports from students who have been told they cannot take time off from class after having a miscarriage or giving birth. Others have fought faculty to find out if they were being exposed to toxic chemicals in science classes.
“They’re being told essentially that, ‘You’ve made a choice to be a mom now and you just need to focus on that. You’re no longer welcome here,’” she said.
Student parents have higher grade point averages than their nonparent peers, according to research from a nonprofit that pledges to improve women’s lives, the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. “Their kids are their motivation for doing everything they can to succeed academically,” Ms. Lee said.
However, for students carrying or raising children they were forced to bear because of laws prohibiting abortion, “their academic performance will probably suffer more than it would with if they were able to make their own decisions about their reproductive lives and family,” a researcher on expanding reproductive services for student parents, Meredith Manze, predicted.
To limit the number of students who are forced to keep unwanted pregnancies, universities should increase on-campus access to contraceptives, Ms. Manze recommended. Student activists at Columbia, Harvard, and other schools have successfully petitioned for emergency contraceptive vending machines in recent years, but she said these efforts are most needed in conservative states with limited abortion services.
Higher education institutions should also prepare for growing numbers of pregnant and parenting students by expanding the availability of lactation centers, childcare centers, and on-campus advocates who could help students navigate existing resources, she suggested.
“Student parents don’t have a significant difference in income from nonparents, but they are more likely to be employed, work more hours, have more debt and use food assistance more,” she explained, advocating for scholarships targeting student parents.
Nearly 70 percent of parenting students are housing insecure and face high childcare costs, which have only worsened since the start of the pandemic, according to the most recent data from a research organization, The Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice.
Greater faculty training on Title IX protocols could improve academic flexibility for student parents and bolster retention rates. “Colleges and universities really need to transform how they view attendance and how they’re providing accommodations to keep pregnant students in, even if they have health needs,” Ms. Lee said.
Although well-funded, private universities are best positioned to support student parents, “community colleges have been paying more attention to the needs of these populations than a lot of the traditional four-year schools,” Ms. Lee said.
The overturning of Roe v. Wade might finally be a wake-up call for colleges and universities to enact robust policies that help student parents achieve their degrees and offer the best chances at financial stability after graduation.
“Regardless of why a student is pregnant or has a child, if it was wanted or not, colleges have an obligation to meet their essential needs and sexual reproductive health care,” Ms. Manze said. “Supporting those students should be considered an essential need.”