Boston College Flunked by Pro-Life Study

A recently published study by a pro-life institute has given Boston College and two other Catholic universities an F grade for affiliations or ties with Planned Parenthood.

The Demetree Institute for Pro-Life Advancement, an organization under the Pro-Life Generation movement, annually promotes awareness of the problem of Christian schools that show support for and have connections to Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers. 

The Institute publishes the results of their surveying of hundreds of Christian schools in the United States every year. The latest report was compiled during the 2023-24 school year, finalized in July, and published in September. 

The Demetree Institute defined a Christian university as the following: the institute of higher education must be affiliated with a Christocentric denomination and publicly claim this denomination’s role in the organization’s founding. (Demetree 2024) 

As a part of their background research, the researchers also consulted the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Catalogue of Catholic Colleges and Universities in the United States. This narrowed their survey to 732 Christian schools.

The study evaluated these schools on a letter-grade ranking system, with F being the lowest possible score and A+ the highest. All the schools surveyed started out with an A score.

That score was decreased by one letter grade based on the number of infractions found on the university’s website and/or other resources the university provides. What qualifies as an ‘infraction’ is defined as the following: 1) Offering an internship, job, or volunteer opportunity at Planned Parenthood, 2) listing Planned Parenthood as a health or classroom resource, 3) hosting and publicizing promotional events since 2020 featuring Planned Parenthood or another abortion-provider, and 4) publishing articles (via administration or a department) in direct support of Planned Parenthood or abortion.

A Christian school with zero infractions retained an A-rating. A Christian school with one infraction received a B-rating. The rating decreased by a letter grade for each additional infraction received. Four or more infractions resulted in an F-grade.

If the Christian schools were found to have no ties to Planned Parenthood, they were eligible to receive an A+ rating if they had also provided resources referring pregnant students to local pregnancy help centers.

The study’s evidence consisted of taking screenshots and timestamps of so-called infractions, conducting further research into any possible ties to the abortion industry, and reaching out to the university before publication of the study. Typically these were web addresses and links on a university’s official website and domains. The Demetree Institute published the full document of evidence alongside the study.

The Demetree Institute further claimed that it reached out to any offending universities in July requesting that infractions be taken down or condemned. Thus, there was ample time for resolution before publication.

The published results of the study are as follows: A+ rating (7.9%), A-rating (80.7%), B-rating (3.3%), C-rating (2.7%), D-rating (2.0%), and F-rating (3.3%).

Boston College ranked in the bottom 3.3% of Christian schools, receiving an F-rating for having multiple instances of explicit and implicit support for Planned Parenthood and abortion advocates on its online domain and campus life. It was one of only three Catholic universities to be rated as such. 

Boston College’s four listed infractions were all events hosted by the Law School. They generally featured advocates, representatives and even attorneys of Planned Parenthood on panels or similar events. 

However, the decisive factor in at least one case was the absence of any dissenting pro-life panelists or opinions. This implies that had there been a balanced debate or presentation of opinions, rather than apparent endorsement of Planned Parenthood, some of these events might not have been considered infractions.

All of the cited events were officially hosted and promoted by Boston College. Thus, the study did not consider any unofficial support or endorsement of Planned Parenthood by certain groups on campus.

While it may be quickly objected that the Demetree Institute’s findings were politically motivated or alarmist, the study’s criteria were relatively reserved, generally sticking to the most public and official channels for its assessments of universities’ stances. Daily campus culture, for good or for ill, was not a factor in the rankings.

This study raises an important question: If a Catholic university does not hold firmly and publicly to one of the Church’s most explicit (albeit controversial and contended) moral teachings in the modern era, in what sense can it continue to promote itself as Catholic?