Jesuit university health plan covers student abortions

OSV contributing editor Valerie Schmalz has followed up on a story first reported yesterday by the Catholic Key blog.

Here’s what she’s found:

The Jesuit University of San Francisco has begun providing abortion coverage to its undergraduates as part of required student health insurance.

The new insurance plan is in sync with the USF employees’ plan which has provided coverage for abortion since at least 2006. [source?]

The plan, available on the USF website, states in the section regarding maternity coverage, in a subhead titled “Voluntary Termination of Pregnancy,” that “Covered Medical Expenses are payable as follows: Preferred Care: 90% of the Negotiated Charge. Non-Preferred Care: 70% of the Reasonable Charge.”

Calls and emails to USF president, Jesuit Father Stephen Privett, and associate vice president for public affairs and communications, Gary McDonald, were not returned. A call Dec. 11 to the Health Promotion Services office at USF was referred to McDonald.

Archdiocese of San Francisco spokesman Maurice Healy said in an e-mail that Archbishop George Niederauer was away and wouldn’t be able to comment until the middle of next week.

The issue of contraception and abortion on Catholic college campuses is not a new one, notes Patrick Reilly, president of the Cardinal Newman Society, which is dedicated to promoting Catholic identity at Catholic universities and colleges.

“We certainly allow for the possibility that this was not intentional and we’re hoping that the University of San Francisco — now that this has come to light — will immediately alter the policy,” Reilly told Our Sunday Visitor. Reilly said he knows of no other Catholic college which offers abortion insurance coverage to students.

“There were problems several years ago with some colleges, including Georgetown University, considering plans that included abortion and there was much controversy. I am not aware now of a Catholic college that provides abortion coverage in a plan for students,” Reilly said. “The past issues have largely centered around health plans for employees. The fact that the University of San Francisco has a plan providing for student abortions is certainly no less destructive but particularly frightening.”

Signing up for the university’s Aetna health insurance is mandatory for undergraduates at USF unless they have a waiver that proves they have other health insurance. The students get most of their health care from a special clinic for students at St. Mary’s Medical Center, which is across the street from the university, and does not provide gynecology and obstetrics.

An official at the hospital said that St. Mary’s refers students who request abortion or contraception either to Planned Parenthood or to Aetna providers.

St. Mary’s senior director Les McGee, who said he oversees the student health clinic among other areas, told OSV no statistics are kept on how many students request abortion. “We just provide them with resources of where they want to go,” McGee said. “We’re not involved in terminating pregnancies.”

(Photo credit Shutterstock)

UPDATE: USF has announced it will drop the abortion coverage provision from the student plan.