Petition to expand resources for pregnant students sparks controversy

By Abigail Chiu     3/25/25 11:12pm

Rice For Life and the Catholic Student Association launched a joint petition together calling for Rice to expand resources for pregnant and parenting resources. 

The petition, sent out March 8,  calls for support and resources that honor all pregnant and parenting students’ values; priority registration, academic flexibility and financial aid accountability; childcare accessibility, affordability, and housing; and reproductive health resources. It had 254 verified signatures, at the time of publication. 

The petition calls for a resource hub, priority registration and academic flexibility, childcare accessibility, on-campus housing options and menstrual education and abstinence perspectives in Critical Thinking in Sexuality courses, among other measures, with inspiration from the University of Houston’s efforts. 

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Abigail Robert, president of RFL, said both CSA and RFL share a common goal of bringing together pro-life individuals in order to make a positive and meaningful change on campus. 

“We sought to equip summit attendees with the tools and inspiration to foster a ‘culture of life’ on campus,” Robert, a Jones College senior, wrote in an email to the Thresher. “Additionally, we aimed to empower attendees to take practical steps toward advocating for expanded reproductive health options for students at Rice University, with a focus on choices that support the dignity of the unborn, as well as expanded resources that support pregnant and parenting students.”

Rice Students for Reproductive Justice co-founder Imogen Brown said she reached out to a member of RFL to ask for the summit’s schedule and was told it was intended for students who already identified as pro-life. 

RSRJ’s purpose is to advocate for the accessibility of reproductive and sexual health resources, including abortion.

Christopher Blackburn, co-president of CSA, said pregnancy and parenthood are commitments of time, energy and money that aren’t viable for many students without university support.

When compared to our peers, Rice doesn’t offer nearly enough support to make life a viable choice,” wrote Blackburn, a Sid Richardson College junior. “By expanding their current support system, Rice wouldn’t be restricting women’s reproductive rights, but rather ensuring students actually have the ability to choose.”

Rice currently offers resources for pregnant and parenting students such as larger desks, excused absences due to pregnancy and lactation rooms. 

Claire Druffner, co-president of CSA, said the petition aims to improve access to these resources as well as other off-campus services.

“Our petition asks Rice to publish a comprehensive list of life-affirming resources to support expectant mothers and student-parents, who are admirably choosing to be parents while continuing their education,” Druffner, a Lovett College senior, wrote in an email to the Thresher.

The organizations have had a mixed response from students to both the petition and the summit itself, Blackburn said.

“On the one hand, we have been encouraged by the support from those on campus who have signed our petition and support our efforts to help pregnant and parenting students,” Blackburn wrote. “However, we have definitely had some pushback. Most visibly, the Rice Students for Reproductive Justice.”

RSRJ made an Instagram post calling for students not to sign the petition. The post was taken down after RFL and CSA contacted RSRJ due to an inaccuracy.

The post originally said that the petition calls for an on-campus crisis pregnancy center and said RFL was propagating an anti-abortion agenda under the guise of providing parenting resources. 

Brown said RSRJ’s issue with faith-based pregnancy centers is that they can often refer to crisis pregnancy centers, which she said have been known to spread misinformation about pregnancy and abortion to vulnerable women. 

Druffner said RFL and CSA are not advocating for an on-campus pregnancy resource center, but for Rice to include faith-based resources on its published resource page. RSRJ issued a corrected post with this clarification March 25.

“Even though RSRJ isolated Rice For Life in their post, Claire, Chris, and I wrote an email to RSRJ addressing the specific claims made in the Instagram post, clarifying the petition’s intent by citing the actual petition, and explaining why their claim was false and misleading,” Robert wrote. “[Their accusations were] injurious to RFL’s reputation and harmful to the university’s community.” 

RFL appealed to the Office of Equal Opportunity Services about the post, but the complaint is still undergoing review.

“We put the original post back up alongside a new post correcting the statement and reinforcing our overall message. Conveying accurate information is important to us,” Brown, a Duncan College senior, wrote. “Regarding our stance on the petition, however, it makes no difference whether the petition is advocating for a Rice CPC versus a Rice CPC/CPC-affiliate resource list. We maintain that the promotion of Houston area CPCs in any form is deeply detrimental to informed reproductive decision making.

“Not all faith-based pregnancy resource centers would call themselves CPCs, but many are still affiliated with broader anti-abortion networks that can expose students to CPCs and their associated dangers,” Brown wrote. “Given their harmful, deceptive tactics, Rice should not promote these centers as a resource in any form.”

Druffner said when she took CTIS, she felt that abstinence was not represented as a perspective on sexuality and the course lacked menstrual education.

“The petition asks Rice to encourage abstinence as a valid option alongside other already-validated sexual perspectives in order to better represent the diverse thoughts of the student body,” Druffner wrote. “Second … most women are never instructed on the phases of the menstrual cycle, what symptoms are healthy and unhealthy and their options for increased health and well-being.”

Brown said RSRJ took issue with promoting abstinence because abstinence education stigmatizes sex and is less effective at preventing unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections.

“Rice promotes access to concrete sexual health resources like birth control and condoms — it does not provide comprehensive sex ed. In other words, the petition encourages Rice to provide abstinence education when Rice doesn’t even provide sex education,” Brown wrote. “RSRJ agrees that students should be able to choose whether to have sex or not have sex. But abstinence is not a sexual health resource, nor is it an effective approach to sexual health education.”

Druffner wrote that RFL and CSA have not officially approached administration with the petition, which has a goal of 1,000 signatures. She wrote that she hopes the petition sheds light on Rice’s lack of resources for pregnant and parenting students and will bring change that honors the worth and dignity of each student.

“I would like Rice students to critically think about discourse. Too many times over the past four years, people have immediately stopped listening to my perspective based on perceived ideological differences,” Druffner wrote. “We are often told to seek common ground — but do we, as Rice students, genuinely seek common ground?”

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