UHS's Silence on Abortion

Every full-time Harvard student funds elective abortions. That is, unless he or she takes the extraordinary step of writing a letter to University Health Services (UHS) requesting a rebate of the annual cost per individual of subsidizing a practice that he or she may consider morally unconscionable. I just learned this the other day, after eight years of participating in the Harvard student health plan, because a flier finally brought the fact to my attention.

I want to make two simple points. The first is that every Harvard student should know that his or her money is funding elective abortions. The second is that, as far as I can tell, Harvard has done very little to relay this information to students.

After I read the flier, I couldn't recall every reading about either the abortion subsidy or the rebate option for conscientious objectors in any of the material I received year after year from UHS. Strange, I thought; I must have overlooked some prominent proviso or conspicuous caveat. So I went and pored over the materials UHS sent me this year. I found the information, and the reason I had never known it.

If you're not sexually active, it is very unlikely you would ever know either that the Harvard health plan funds elective abortions or that you can refuse to abet these abortions. This information is buried at the end of the "Sexuality Services" section of the Guide to University Health Services under the innocuous heading, "Pregnancy Counseling and Support Services."

The elective abortion proviso is even more inconspicuous now than it was last year, when it was placed under an "Abortion" heading within a "Women's Health/Contraception" section (a title which, I might add, does not imply elective abortions). The guide should be fixed to give fair notice to all Harvard students that UHS does have an abortion policy that may involve the use of student fees.

There is also a sentence in this year's guide's Sexuality Services section that will send a shiver down some morally sensitive spines: "If you become pregnant and wish to continue the pregnancy, you will be referred to the UHS Obstetrical Service, staffed by Brigham and Women's Faculty OB-GYN Practice physicians and nurse practitioners, for prenatal care." The sentence implies that having an abortion is as common and unproblematic as continuing a pregnancy, which for most of us it is certainly not.

For UHS, to complete a pregnancy is emphatically not the default choice. To subsidize elective abortion is. Rather than argue whether this is a morally justified position, I want to make sure all Harvard students know it is Harvard's position. Because this policy so impinges the conscience of many of its students, Harvard should make it known more readily than it has. Daniel H. Choi '94 is a second-year student at Harvard Law School and a Ph.D. candidate in the Government Department.