A 2023 study revealed that among Christian colleges and universities, support of the abortion industry has increased by 10% since 2021, in the wake of the reversal of Roe v. Wade.

“At this critical time in history,” the study says, “when women and children need life-affirming pregnancy and parenting help, an alarming number of Christian schools have abandoned the Biblical value of the sanctity of life in favor of propping up the abortion industry.”

Researchers with Students for Life of America’s Demetree Institute for Pro-Life Advancement (IPA) published the 2023 Christian Schools Project, a study analyzing Christian colleges’ affiliation with the abortion industry. Researchers conducted a thorough sweep of the 767 Christian-affiliated colleges’ websites in search of connections to Planned Parenthood or other pro-abortion groups—and whether the schools had connections to local pregnancy centers or other abortion alternatives.

Connections ranged from volunteer or internship opportunities within the abortion industry, to advertisements on the school’s website for events that hosted Planned Parenthood or another abortion industry leader, to Planned Parenthood shown as a future career opportunity for students, and similar troubling content.

The study found that one in 10 of the schools investigated were connected to Planned Parenthood or supported abortion in some way. The most common connection was listing Planned Parenthood as a “health resource,” with 45% of pro-abortion actions falling under this category. In addition, internship opportunities with Planned Parenthood constituted 24% of the pro-abortion connections.

Two percent—16 schools—received a grade of “F” for four or more pro-abortion actions. Eight percent received grades B, C or D.

Encouragingly, 84% of the schools had a grade of “A,” meaning no pro-abortion connections were found—and 6% earned an “A+,” indicating that not only were no such connections discovered, but the school also maintained a relationship with a local pro-life pregnancy center.

The same study was conducted in 2021, after which IPA reached out to the schools, identifying their questionable connections and asking them to remove the pro-abortion content. Some F-grade colleges doubled down in their support of abortion and Planned Parenthood, writing emails to explain their position. For example, Pacific Lutheran University in Washington State wrote: “We’re not interested—we market Planned Parenthood’s contraception and women’s services.” Monrovian College in Pennsylvania wrote: “I have repeatedly replied to your organization. We have told you we will continue to support the internship at Planned Parenthood for our students because it is important for them to best understand the world they are entering.”

Several schools responded positively to IPA’s communications this year, however. For example, Mount St. Mary College moved from a C to an A by removing previous Planned Parenthood events from their website.

Students for Life of America says that Planned Parenthood seems strategically to target college students; 87.6% of its locations are within 5 miles or less of a college campus—an 8.6% increase over 10 years.

“If the pro-life movement wishes to change the entire landscape of higher education in the United States to become life-affirming,” the study concludes, “it is essential to start with religious schools that already should align with the Christian belief that all life is valuable and worthy of protection.”

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