Parent-Friendly Campus Legislation

Feminists for Life College Outreach Program Inspires Legislation

Washington, D.C., March 19, 2007 __ Senators Elizabeth Dole, R-North Carolina, and Ben Nelson, D-Nebraska, introduced the Elizabeth Cady Stanton Pregnant and Parenting Student Services Act of 2007 today to help pregnant and parenting college students continue their education.

The bill is named for the famous suffragist, mother of the women’s movement and advocate for women’s education, and is modeled on a program Feminists for Life initiated on college campuses in 1997.

“This legislation supports women who wish to be both students and mothers,” said Sen. Nelson. “By fostering a parent-friendly environment in our nation’s universities, we can help these students who have made the decision to balance parenthood and education.”

“Pregnancy and child rearing can be overwhelming, particularly when coupled with the pressures of being a student,” said Sen. Dole. “Whether they are married or single, mothers or fathers, we need to do our part to support these students and provide them with options that allow them to be a parent and still graduate from college.”

The bipartisan Senate bill, if passed into law, would establish a pilot program to provide up to $50 million in grants to encourage institutions of higher education to establish and operate a pregnant and parenting student services office. The on-campus office would serve parenting students, prospective student parents who are pregnant or imminently anticipating an adoption, and students who are placing or have placed a child for adoption.

Legislation with the same name was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Representatives Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, and Sue Myrick, R-North Carolina, in February.