The following comes from an Oct. 9 story in the San Jose Mercury News.
A decision by Santa Clara University’s president to drop health insurance coverage of elective abortions for the Catholic university’s faculty and staff has triggered a serious rift at the school.
Many faculty members say they were blindsided by the move at an institution that has long prided itself on open communication and governing by consensus.
The thorny issue echoes a nationwide debate at Catholic universities over their institutional identities and ability to consider the convictions of those who do not identify with — or who disagree with — certain principles the Catholic tradition holds as central.
The uproar at SCU comes on the heels of a contentious vote this week by trustees of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, another Jesuit school that decided not to provide coverage for elective abortions. And, ironically, the controversy came to a boil on the same day that California Gov. Jerry Brown, a former Jesuit seminarian, went off in a different direction by signing two bills aimed at increasing access to abortion in California.
“This really makes Santa Clara University’s express commitment to openness, diversity and inclusiveness ring hollow,” said history professor Nancy Unger, who is Catholic.
University President Michael Engh, a Jesuit priest, said in a two-page letter dated last Thursday and sent to 1,600 employees that the university carefully studied how the school can structure its medical insurance plans in 2014 to be compliant with federal and California laws and regulations while representing its values as a Jesuit university. The university concluded that “our core commitments as a Catholic university are incompatible with the inclusion of elective abortion coverage in the University’s health plans,” he stated in the letter.
Asked to respond to the uproar among faculty, the president’s office on Wednesday issued a statement that simply rephrased parts of the letter.
Unger said that the university prides itself on “shared governance” and that Engh’s action is an egregious violation to that commitment because he did not alert faculty and staff that he was even considering the issue.
“This is not the Santa Clara University that I have loved and been proud to serve,” Unger said.
In the letter, Engh said a series of open forums to discuss the issue will be announced next week and will be coordinated by the executive directors of the Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education, the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics and the Women’s and Gender Studies Department.
Still, some faculty wondered why the discussion couldn’t have been held before Engh made the decision.
Mary Hegland, a SCU professor of anthropology, said she doesn’t “love abortion,” but that “the male Jesuits running Santa Clara University feel they know what God wants regarding women, women’s bodies and women’s reproduction. … We have many women working at SCU who are not Catholic or — even if Catholic — do not believe that abortion is against God’s will. If the SCU male Jesuit administration really felt ‘sensitivity towards women’ (as Engh cited in the letter), they would not have made this decision.”
But professor John Hawley, chairman of the English Department, said on the one hand the university “presents and studies all sorts of ideas, not just those of the Roman Catholic Church.” But on some ethical issues, he said, “it needs to take a particular stand lest it be seen as anti-Catholic. And this is one of them.”
Officials at other Bay Area Catholic colleges — Holy Names University, the University of San Francisco, Notre Dame de Namur University and St. Mary’s College — did not respond Wednesday to inquiries about whether their employee health plans next year will cover elective abortions.
Under the federal Affordable Care Act, commonly known as “Obamacare,” all health plans require employers to cover reproductive health services such as contraception and sterilization, but not abortion.
California law requires employers to cover reproductive health services and also requires “therapeutic abortions” when the health of the mother is at stake. But state law does not require employers to cover elective abortions.
To read the entire story, click here.
Fr. President Engh did the right thing — he acted like a chief executive. If he had submitted this plan for “discussion” in the university, the pro-abort professors like Nancy Unger and Mary Hegland would have orchestrated a vitrolic protest against his decision, created a media dog-and-pony show (they still may) and put him in an untenable position.
“said history professor Nancy Unger, who is Catholic.” really should have read “said history professor Nancy Unger, who is “Catholic.”!
May God have mercy on an amoral America!
Viva Cristo Rey!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher, Founding Director
Concerned Roman Catholics of America, Inc.
Thank God the university did the right thing.
A Catholic institution cannot take part in killing the unborn.
Nor paying for such killing.
Nancy Unger is not Catholic!
Nancy Unger is just what she is……a total self aborbed and arrogant academic like so many of them are these days. Their effect on our youth is obvious. .
No one cares what she thinks. A Catholic University is just that. Don’t like it join Obama’s team!!!!!
You sure? Were you there when she renounced her baptism?
The Woman Nancy Unger is a Catholic , probably like many other baptized Catholics does not pray the Rosary or have a well formed understanding of the catholic faith. Instead of ‘shouting from the rooftops’ how she is not Catholic do the following.
1. Offer at least 1 rosary for her conversion
2. Make sacrifice for her and those in her formation
3. Volunteer at your local parish to help those Catholics that do not have a catholic formation to come to know Christ better.
a. By perhaps starting a Group like Opus Dei or Region of Mary and asking people to join
b. Start a Rosary group that meets at least twice a month and invite people to it
c. Perhaps start a group that discusses the Catholic Catechism and invite people to it.
Actions like these will bring in a lot of Catholics to the well of faith that is the Catholic Church.
Like Pope Francis says, you cannot teach morality to those that have not first encountered Christ.
“This really makes Santa Clara University’s express commitment to openness, diversity and inclusiveness ring hollow,” said history professor Nancy Unger, who is Catholic.”
Uh, no, Nancy, you are NOT Catholic…
I’m surprised they ever had abortion coverage in the first place. But, good job, Jesuits.
This will not restrict women at SCU from obtaining an abortion, they will simply have to pay for it themselves. Much ado about nothing. Access to abortion isn’t denied, SCU insurance coverage for it is. Besides, state law doesn’t require an employer of any kind to pay for elective abortions. President Engh is making a faith policy statement here, not an earth shattering decisions that will save hundreds of babies.
May not be ‘earth shattering’, Good Cause, but it’s a start. And while there may not be an immediate saving of children – mores the pity – there will be a long term effect if President Engh can hold ground and stick with that which is right… and Catholic.
That’s actually the lesson a person should be paying for when selecting a Catholic school.
No way Ann!
SCU still pays for:
– ‘therapeutic abortion’ (killing babies for the ‘health’ of the mother incl when the mom might feel sick or stressed about the pregnancy),
– contraceptives
– mutilation and sterilization
Not so Catholic after all. But yes something a person should consider when choosing a Catholic school.
No way, how, Jimmy? While I’m demoralized (what’s new with Jesuit institutions), this ‘step’ toward that which is right is a good thing. Just because there is far more house cleaning that needs to be done at SCU doesn’t detract from the positive aspects of this new policy.
But I hear you. Pretty disgusting stuff when a Catholic University has to ‘take the plunge’ to actually be Catholic. What a mixed up world. Read up on the Land O’Lakes conference if you want a little insight into how things got that way.
That’s why I wouldn’t dare send my kids to a Catholic College – not without checking very, very carefully into what exactly goes for ‘Catholic’.
How can women at any college, institution, or anywhere in California be restricted from obtaining an abortion, Good Cause? The law allows women to abort living babies growing in their mothers’ wombs, and no one can stop them legally, of course. The only way to stop them is to connect with them on a personal level before they arrange for the murder of their babies. Santa Clara University cannot be faulted for this. However, it is truly not “much ado about nothing,” as you have said, that is, unless in your own personal value system, you consider morality and Catholic principles basically nothing.
If professors don’t like following Catholic teaching they might get another job, teaching at a secular school, perhaps?
The only thing I’m surprised at is how surprised Unger and Hegland are. A minimally educated – Catholic or not – employee at SCU had to know how hypocritical it was that a Jesuit institution would cover abortions. That fact alone damages the institution’s integrity. How did they not see the writing on the wall as soon a Jesuit assumed the Chair of Peter? Engh realigned SCU policy to be consistent with the Magisterium. Bravo! Now it’s Unger and Hegland’s turn to realign themselves with their values…by leaving.
What a surprise. A Jesuit institution did something overtly Catholic. This step is very welcome to those of us who are convinced that the Jesuits would continue to defy Catholic traditions.
Yes, Ted, I’m sure that His Holiness, Pope Francis (S.J.) would be thrilled to hear your opinions about his Religious Community.
As would Voltaire…
The university did do the right thing. It was surely for the good.
Agreed. and welcome back. Are you and your family OK?
“Mary Hegland, a SCU professor of anthropology, said she doesn’t “love abortion,” but that “the male Jesuits running Santa Clara University feel they know what God wants regarding women, women’s bodies and women’s reproduction. … We have many women working at SCU who are not Catholic or — even if Catholic — do not believe that abortion is against God’s will. If the SCU male Jesuit administration really felt ‘sensitivity towards women’ (as Engh cited in the letter), they would not have made this decision.”
You got to admit this woman has a warped sense of humor. Does she beleive any of this stuff she is saying? She sounds like its 1963 and is a proffessor? LOL where do they get these relics from?
Bwangi Kilonzo, your comment is not in any way admirable, nor is it worthy of someone who would be recognized as a Christian. It is ageist, calling this woman a relic, and it therefore suggests that you do not approve of God giving life to certain people for longer than you think He should. It is dismissive of the woman personally without offering any counter-argument to her position.
If you are going to post a comment here, please give us something worthy of our time to read and perhaps to think about rather than chortle at people who have managed to stay alive despite people like you feeling superior to them and disapproving of God’s decisions regarding who shall live and who shall die. I think God knows better than you how long a person should be allowed to stay on this earth. Showing your ageism is sowing your ignorance and your prejudice, and failing to offer a worthy response to this woman’s remarks actually means you appear less intelligent than she does.
I hope you take my comments as useful information on how to elevate your own contributions rather than a personal attack on your intelligence. None of us can be faulted for the level of native intelligence with which God has endowed us, but when we engage in public discourse, it is much better to offer solid argument than to display our prejudices against others whose only crime, if one were to follow your argument, is to have failed to kill themselves at the age at which you can no longer suffer their existence. I don’t hear the Catholic viewpoint in your message.
May I ask if you plan to kill yourself when you attain the age at which others should not have to abide your being still among us? If not, how will you answer when others, younger than you, denounce you in a public forum due solely to your having failed to expire at their preferred timetable?
The faculty stated that they are use to governing by consensus. So apparently the consensus at Santa Clara University is that abortion should be available and covered by their medical insurance. yikes!
I wonder if Professor Nancy Unger who says she believes in “openness, diversity and inclusiveness” would support openness towards, diversity of, and inclusiveness of, this new policy and the Priest who instituted it. Of course she doesn’t!!!
Bravo for Fr. Engh! Let us hope that this is merely a good start. If some faculty is unhappy, I am sure they get teaching jobs elsewhere. With attitudes such as theirs, they should not be teaching at a Catholic university in the first place.
K – I was in the hospital and my dad was in the hospital a couple of times and in the nursings home now. Thanks.
I hope you are better. Will pray for you and your dad.