Northwestern Associated Student Government’s Health and Wellness Committee’s decision to install a “reproductive vending machine” in Norris University Center represents a troubling missed opportunity to support life. Rather than creating a campus culture that supports its female students facing unexpected pregnancies, students are given one message: Pregnancy is a problem to be prevented or eliminated, not the beginning of a life to be celebrated and supported.
We are two siblings who go to NU. We are passionate about this issue, not just because of our Christian faith, but because we know that life begins at conception. Every person on this campus was once a “cluster of cells.” We survived because someone wanted us to. Someone chose to let us live. Protecting life at every stage is paramount. Our message does not come from a place of partisanship nor hate mongering, but out of a value for the life of a mother and her child.
The Norris vending machine will dispense Plan B One-Step, a common emergency contraceptive. What concerns us isn’t just the widespread availability of the drug on campus, but the lack of information provided to students who may use it.
Many faith traditions, as well as medical experts, recognize life beginning the moment a sperm and egg unite. One of Plan B’s primary aims is to prevent the implantation of a fertilized embryo. This raises serious questions. Students deserve complete transparency about how Plan B works and its moral implications. The anonymity of a vending machine offers no counseling, no discussion of alternatives and no support. NU students deserve better than pills from a machine.
If NU genuinely cares about supporting women, it should look to models of other campuses providing comprehensive assistance.
Aid for Women, located near NU’s Evanston campus, offers free pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, material assistance including diapers and clothing, parenting classes and ongoing support, encouraging women to choose life. This resource should be prominently featured in University health materials.
The Catholic University of America’s Guadalupe Project provides a compelling blueprint for campus support, offering housing assistance, childcare, academic accommodations and community support for pregnant and parenting students — both mothers and fathers. Why can’t NU implement something similar? Are we really unable to imagine a campus where women don’t have to choose between education and children?
We are the fifth and sixth children in a family of ten. We love all our siblings and count the days until Thanksgiving break when we can return home to visit them. One of our eldest brothers and his wife are expecting their second child, a baby boy, in January, and we are so excited. These experiences have taught us that the life of every child is a gift, not a burden.
To any woman on this campus facing an unexpected pregnancy: We are here for you. We know this is hard. We know the fear of telling parents — of disrupting academic plans and facing an uncertain future. We aren’t here to judge. We are here to offer solidarity and direct you to concrete support. Both you and your child matter!
Please reach out to organizations like Aid for Women that are there to walk with you through this. Your education doesn’t have to end. Your child doesn’t have to die in order for your dreams to come true. You are not alone.
To NU’s student government: Stop treating pregnancy as a disease to be prevented and start treating pregnant students as community members deserving of support. Instead of promoting a vending machine that normalizes our current contraceptive and pro-abortion culture, connect students with real resources to help them and their unborn child in this moment of crisis.
Implement a Guadalupe Project-style support system. Partner with Aid for Women. Include abstinence and fertility awareness-based education in health programming so that students more fully appreciate the gift of a woman’s fertility.
Together, we should work to create a campus culture where new life isn’t seen as a crisis, but as an occasion for celebration and support. Because that’s what true compassion — and true reproductive justice — looks like.
Francesca Bayer is a Weinberg freshman. She can be contacted at [email protected]. Gabriel Bayer is a Weinberg junior. He can be contacted at [email protected]. If you would like to respond publicly to this op-ed, send a Letter to the Editor to [email protected]. The views expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the views of all staff members of The Daily Northwestern.
