Whitworth ends for-credit opportunities with Planned Parenthood

Peter Houston-Hencken | News Editor

Published April 18, 2017

Whitworth University will no longer offer credit-bearing internships or service-learning opportunities with Planned Parenthood, severing all formal ties with the organization, beginning in fall of 2017. This information came in a campus-wide email from President Beck Taylor, Tuesday afternoon.

Currently, Whitworth is connected with Planned Parenthood through the Dornsife Center for Community Engagement where students can up for credit-based internships with the organization. In recent years a small number of students have participated in internships with Planned Parenthood.

This move comes six months after The Whitworthian published a controversial opinion piece that urged the university to cut all ties with Planned Parenthood.

Taylor expressed in his email that his decision was not easy. Additionally, Taylor believes that this move does not mean Whitworth is changing its stance on gender equality.

“I have decided that Whitworth’s relationship with the organization, even as limited and tangential as it currently is and has been, sends a confusing signal to many of our constituencies,” Taylor wrote in the email.

This decision comes at a time when a pro-choice club is beginning to form on campus, according to the statement.

“Although this new club won’t have an affiliation with Planned Parenthood, my hope is that it will contribute to the important campus conversations we are having about these issues,” Taylor wrote.

Taylor ended the statement by informing readers that Vice President Rhosetta Rhodes will convene a task force to examine students’ concerns about this issue.