Planned Parenthood’s Grip on Christian Universities

Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion hub, has invaded what some would assume to be unlikely territory. Rather than further infiltrating Democrat-led states, secular universities, and other places where abortion is commonly promoted and embraced, numerous Christian colleges have been exposed for latching onto a relationship with the abortion industry.

Students for Life of America (SFLA) recently released the data through its Demetree Institute for Pro-Life Advancement Christian Schools Project. In its fourth annual report, 725 Christian colleges and universities across America were investigated, with researchers “examining each institution’s public materials, resources, partnerships and student-facing programs to identify ties to Planned Parenthood,” wrote Kristi Hamrick, SFLA’s vice president of media and policy. “Through this process, our team confirmed 118 Christian colleges and universities with active ties.”

Upon this discovery, Hamrick and her team notified the schools of these connections — with only eight having addressed them. “Our goal,” she stressed, “is that every school definitively ends relationships with the nation’s biggest abortion seller, which has no moral, medical, or missional place inside a Christian institution.”

The specific numbers were nothing short of disheartening for those who expect Christian academic institutions to uphold pro-life values. The study found that more than one in seven Christian schools have maintained a connection to Planned Parenthood as of 2025 — an uptick from the year prior. Additionally, school backing for Planned Parenthood and abortion vendors raised nearly 20% on campuses since the 2022 Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. The study also showcased how more than 50 ties have been severed between schools and Planned Parenthood, and “nearly 14% more schools promoted non-violent pregnancy care centers.”

And yet, the study shed light on the fact that for each school maintaining its connection to Planned Parenthood is a school directly violating its professed faith. As the Heritage Foundation’s Mary Mobley put it, these are “colleges publicly proclaiming Christ while privately violating the most basic Christian value: the dignity of life.”

SFLA presented the study’s findings as a “glass half full,” “glass half empty” situation. On the one hand, the group wrote, “More A+ schools than ever before emerged as Christian schools responded to reports of Planned Parenthood on campus.” Conversely, “More faith-connected schools than ever before allowed big abortion to taint their school services [and] campus life” — “even Pope Leo XIV’s alma mater, Villanova University, got an ‘F.’”

Notably, several colleges received an “F.” For more than one-fourth of the “failing” colleges, it was due to the school listing Planned Parenthood as a health organization or resource. Others held so-called “reproductive health” events featuring the abortion hub. Many of these Christian-affiliated schools placed their affiliation with Planned Parenthood under pages related to “LGBTQIA2S+” content. Many also pulled Planned Parenthood data as a means to highlight “important numbers,” or ushered their “Women and Gender studies” majors into referencing “abortion clinics” as “field study opportunities.” The full list offering such details goes on for another 200 pages.

As Hamrick explained, “The purpose of the Christian Schools Project is to raise public awareness of these relationships so that Christian families, donors, pastors, and alumni can call schools back to their biblical mission and encourage institutional reform. Without this accountability, the future of Christian higher education grows increasingly compromised.” On the topic of accountability, SFLA President Kristan Hawkins stated that “Christian schools need to inspire their students to embrace Biblical values and to find better partners than those who sell death by abortion and sterilizing, experimental drugs. For those schools refusing to kick Planned Parenthood off campus, parents and alumni need to remind them that support can go away when values disappear.”

And yet, Hamrick added, for the schools that have “remedied” their infractions, it was the “direct result of student interventions, parent advocacy, and public awareness generated through this project. Each removal represents meaningful progress toward restoring Christian schools to their life-affirming mission.”

Family Research Council’s Dr. David Closson, director of the Center for Biblical Worldview and author of “Life After Roe,” addressed how “the findings from SFLA are deeply troubling because they reveal a disconnect between what many Christian colleges confess and what they actually practice.” Closson didn’t mince words: “Scripture is unambiguous about the sanctity of human life,” with passages like Psalm 139, Jeremiah 15, and Genesis 1 all affirming that “human life is created by God, known by Him before birth, and imbued with inherent dignity,” he told The Washington Stand.

A professing Christian school maintaining a relationship with Planned Parenthood, Closson asserted, “directly conflicts with these biblical truths.” He explained how one of the core arguments in his book is that the “post-Dobbs era requires moral clarity. Dobbs did not end the abortion debate — it shifted responsibility back to communities, churches, families, and institutions.” And so, “Christian colleges are now facing a defining question: Will they order their policies around biblical truth or around cultural pressure?” Faith-based institutions, he added, “must courageously align their practices with their professed beliefs, even when doing so invites criticism.”

These trends, Closson noted, should not be viewed in “isolation,” but in light of them being “symptoms of a deeper crisis of mission drift. Scripture repeatedly warns God’s people against adopting the moral frameworks of the surrounding culture, and when Christian schools promote Planned Parenthood or LGBT ‘rights,’ they are endorsing a worldview that treats personal autonomy as ultimate.” Elevating the “subjective categories” of gender identity or so-called reproductive rights only elevates “the worldview that’s in rebellion against God’s good design,” he argued.

Closson concluded with some practical steps forward: “Christian colleges must be willing to say ‘no’ to partnerships or resources that contradict core Christian convictions. This is especially true on issues where the Bible is very clear, such as with life and sex. Neutrality is no longer possible. Our culture is increasingly hostile to biblical anthropology. Christian institutions must choose faithfulness over convenience.”

“Symptoms of a deeper crisis of mission drift”

Is absolutely correct.

IMHO, any Christian, Jewish, or Catholic college that allows (or enables) abortion clinics or their offices on campus needs new leadership

We have the right to expect at least basic core morality of such institutions. If they went to be/ do otherwise, they’ll parole should at least drop the pretense (and identification) as “Christian” colleges. It’s misleading the flock (parents, etc). False advertising
(And imho, profane)

The largest proportion of colleges that received "D" or "F" grades are affiliated with mainline denominations like the United Methodist Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the Presbyterian Church, USA that may not formally support abortion as a morally correct decision, but that regard it as a woman's right not to be restrained by the government. The affiliated colleges are going to be on the left wing of those denominations anyway. Effectively, these Protestant denominations are in the same camp as those that outright support abortion, such as the United Church of Christ or the Quakers. A better methodology would be to include colleges affiliated with organizations that clearly oppose abortion, such as the Catholic Church or the Southern Baptist Convention.

Some conservative organizations are inclined to use shock headlines to get clicks.

Some “Catholic” colleges have active abortion clinics or arrangers too. The problem isn’t limited to Protestant colleges

It’s a very widespread rejection of basic moral principles throughout much of society.

My issue is that. But especially insofar as some churches / synagogues/ church schools have become “wolves in sheep’s clothing” — flying under false colors. This has to be stopped somehow.

True enough but by and large Catholic colleges as a group are fer better than the mainline Protestant ones. Six of the top ten colleges are Catholic, three affiliated with conservative evangelical denominations, and one mainline (Methodist). The Catholic bishops and the Vatican need to exert discipline on the D and F rated colleges.

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