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Across college campuses nationwide, countless young women face an impossible choice: their education or their child. Many pregnant students remain unaware that federal law already protects their right to continue their studies while carrying their baby to term and caring for their newborn. This information gap has devastating consequences—leading many women to choose abortion, believing they cannot pursue both motherhood and their educational goals. The Pregnant Students’ Rights Act (H.R. 6359) addresses this crisis by ensuring colleges and universities clearly communicate the accommodations, protections, and resources available to pregnant and parenting students.

The Pregnant Students’ Rights Act Addresses a Critical Information Gap

The Pregnant Students’ Rights Act passed the House of Representatives on January 23, 2026, with bipartisan support in a 217-211 vote, with Texas Representative Henry Cuellar being the only Democrat to vote in favor of the legislation. Introduced by Congresswoman Ashley Hinson of Iowa, the bill amends the Higher Education Act to require all institutions receiving federal student aid to disseminate comprehensive information about pregnant students’ rights under Title IX, available campus and community resources, and procedures for filing discrimination complaints.

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 has long protected pregnant students from discrimination, yet awareness of these protections remains disturbingly low. Under existing Title IX regulations, colleges and universities must allow pregnant students to continue participating in classes and extracurricular activities, provide reasonable adjustments like larger desks, elevator access, and frequent restroom breaks, offer excused absences for medical appointments and recovery, and ensure students can make up missed work without penalty. Despite these protections, research indicates that between 50-60% of pregnant and parenting students never graduate, with pregnancy cited as the leading self-reported cause of dropout among female students.

The information vacuum creates a tragic dynamic: young women facing unplanned pregnancies during their college years often feel forced to choose between their educational aspirations and their unborn children. When students don’t know about available accommodations, community resources, or their legal rights, abortion appears to be the only path forward. The Pregnant Students’ Rights Act directly confronts this false choice by mandating that institutions proactively communicate life-affirming support options.

Understanding the Pregnant Students’ Rights Act Requirements

H.R. 6359 establishes clear, actionable requirements for colleges and universities participating in federal student aid programs. The legislation requires institutions to provide three categories of essential information to both prospective and enrolled students.

First, institutions must compile and disseminate a comprehensive list of campus and community resources that assist pregnant students in carrying their babies to term and caring for them after birth. This includes pregnancy resource centers, adoption agencies, childcare services, housing assistance programs, material support organizations providing diapers and baby supplies, and counseling services. The Charlotte Lozier Institute reports that 2,775 pregnancy resource centers across the United States provided $452 million worth of medical care, education services, and material goods to expectant mothers in 2025 alone, with eight in ten centers providing free or low-cost medical services staffed by over 10,000 medical professionals.

Second, the Pregnant Students’ Rights Act mandates that institutions clearly communicate the specific accommodations available to pregnant students. These accommodations must include modified class schedules to accommodate prenatal care appointments, excused absences for childbirth recovery and medical needs, ability to make up missed assignments and exams, access to lactation spaces for nursing mothers, physical accommodations such as adjustable desks and reserved parking, and breaks during class as needed for health-related reasons. The legislation emphasizes that the extent of accommodations must be determined by the student’s medical condition and needs, not by institutional policies or preferences.

Third, colleges must inform students how to file discrimination complaints both with the Department of Education and with the institution itself if they believe their Title IX rights have been violated based on their decision to carry a baby to term. This complaint mechanism provides accountability and ensures students have recourse when institutions fail to honor their obligations.

The dissemination requirements are equally specific. Institutions must provide this information in student handbooks, at orientation sessions for enrolled students, at student health and counseling centers, on institutional websites, and through emails or other written communications. This multi-channel approach ensures that students encounter this critical information at multiple touchpoints throughout their college experience.

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How the Pregnant Students’ Rights Act Saves Lives

The life-saving potential of the Pregnant Students’ Rights Act rests on a simple but profound principle: information changes outcomes. Research consistently demonstrates that women who receive comprehensive information about available support are significantly more likely to choose life for their unborn children. Studies indicate that six out of ten women who had abortions say they would have chosen life if they had known support was available.

The academic pressures facing college students intensify the perceived impossibility of continuing both education and pregnancy. Most college students—89%—report that their education goals would be negatively impacted by having a child, and women who do have children during college face diminished graduation rates. These realities create enormous pressure, and in the absence of clear information about accommodations and support, abortion appears to be the only rational choice.

Consider the typical scenario: A college sophomore discovers she’s pregnant. She’s terrified of losing her scholarship, falling behind in her coursework, disappointing her family, and derailing her career plans. She doesn’t know that federal law protects her right to reasonable accommodations. She’s unaware that her campus likely has protocols for excused absences and makeup work. She doesn’t realize that pregnancy resource centers in her community offer free ultrasounds, material assistance, counseling, and parenting education. Without this information, she schedules an abortion appointment, believing she has no other viable option.

Now imagine the same scenario under the Pregnant Students’ Rights Act. This student received clear information during freshman orientation about her rights as a pregnant student. She knows exactly which office to contact on campus for accommodations. She has a list of local pregnancy centers that can provide immediate support. She understands that federal law prohibits discrimination based on her decision to carry her baby to term. With this knowledge, she has the confidence to explore life-affirming alternatives.

The legislation also addresses a more insidious form of pressure: coercive guidance from faculty and administrators. Without clear institutional policies, some professors and advisors have discouraged pregnant students from continuing their programs, suggested they drop classes, or implied that pregnancy is incompatible with academic success. The Pregnant Students’ Rights Act establishes formal accountability mechanisms that protect students from such discrimination while empowering them to assert their rights.

The Pregnant Students’ Rights Act and Title IX Protections

The Pregnant Students’ Rights Act builds upon the existing foundation of Title IX protections while addressing critical implementation gaps. Title IX has prohibited sex-based discrimination in educational programs since 1972, and courts have consistently interpreted this protection to include pregnancy discrimination. The Biden administration’s 2024 Title IX regulations made these protections even more explicit, requiring colleges to provide requested accommodations for pregnant students, those who have recently given birth, and those experiencing pregnancy-related conditions including miscarriages and lactation.

Under these regulations, when a student discloses a pregnancy to any university employee, that employee is mandated to direct the student toward resources outlining their rights and inform them that the Title IX office can provide support. The regulations also established specific requirements for accommodating lactating students, including providing designated lactation rooms and breaks to pump milk as needed.

However, implementation of Title IX pregnancy protections has been inconsistent. Many students report asking for help but finding that nobody knew who could assist them or where to refer them. Faculty members, particularly in specialized programs like healthcare, education, and other professional tracks requiring clinical experiences or internships, sometimes lack familiarity with accommodation requirements. Some professors resistant to providing adjustments have made pregnant students feel unwelcome or have penalized them for pregnancy-related absences.

The Pregnant Students’ Rights Act addresses these implementation failures by mandating proactive, systematic information dissemination rather than relying on reactive responses to individual accommodation requests. Instead of waiting for pregnant students to navigate complex bureaucracies seeking help, institutions must ensure every student knows their rights before a crisis occurs. This prophylactic approach transforms the information landscape, making pregnancy accommodations a standard, well-understood aspect of campus life rather than an obscure entitlement that students must fight to claim.

The legislation also clarifies the relationship between pregnancy accommodations and disability services. While pregnancy itself is generally not considered a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act or Section 504, many pregnancy-related conditions do qualify for disability accommodations. Many disability resource offices already have procedures for students with temporary disabilities, and these existing frameworks can support pregnant students needing short-term accommodations. The Pregnant Students’ Rights Act ensures students understand how to access these services.

Why Colleges Must Support the Pregnant Students’ Rights Act

Educational institutions have both legal and moral obligations to support pregnant and parenting students. The Pregnant Students’ Rights Act provides colleges with clear statutory guidance for fulfilling these obligations while simultaneously protecting institutions from legal liability.

From a compliance perspective, the legislation clarifies expectations and provides safe harbor for institutions that follow the prescribed information dissemination protocols. Without clear federal guidance, colleges face uncertainty about what constitutes adequate notification and accommodation. Some institutions have adopted comprehensive pregnancy policies, while others have minimal or no formal protocols. This inconsistency creates legal risk, as students who suffer discrimination or are denied accommodations may file complaints with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights or pursue private legal action. The Pregnant Students’ Rights Act establishes uniform standards that protect both students and institutions.

Many universities have recognized these benefits and have already implemented policies consistent with the Act’s requirements. The University of New Mexico released a comprehensive Pregnancy Manual when the 2024 Title IX regulations took effect, detailing pregnancy accommodations, leave of absence procedures, and alternative paths to program completion. Michigan State University and Princeton University released revised policies for pregnant and parenting students in spring 2024, explaining accommodation application processes and discrimination complaint procedures. These institutions recognized that clear policies protect students’ educational access while shielding the university from legal challenges.

The moral case for supporting the Pregnant Students’ Rights Act is equally compelling. Higher education institutions claim to empower all students to succeed and achieve their goals. When pregnant students feel forced to choose between their education and their children, institutions have failed in this fundamental mission. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops articulated this moral imperative clearly: “Too often, expectant and vulnerable women are essentially told that they have to choose either their child or their future. No one should have to make this ultimately false choice.”

Supporting pregnant students also serves institutional interests by improving retention and graduation rates. Students who drop out due to pregnancy represent lost tuition revenue, diminished alumni engagement, and negative impacts on institutional metrics. Providing comprehensive support allows these students to persist through graduation, contributing to institutional success while honoring the students’ potential.

The Economic Impact of Supporting Pregnant Students Through the Pregnant Students’ Rights Act

The financial dimensions of college pregnancy create powerful incentives for abortion—unless institutions and communities provide adequate support. Unplanned pregnancies add significant costs including prenatal care, childbirth expenses, baby supplies and equipment, childcare during classes, potentially reduced work hours, and housing modifications. For college students already managing tuition, fees, textbooks, and living expenses, these additional costs appear insurmountable.

However, the economic case for supporting pregnant students extends beyond individual finances to broader societal benefits. Education dramatically improves economic outcomes, and when pregnant students drop out, they forfeit the earning premium associated with college degrees. Women with bachelor’s degrees earn approximately 67% more over their lifetimes than those with only high school diplomas. When pregnant students abandon their education, they consign themselves and their children to significantly reduced economic prospects, potentially perpetuating cycles of poverty.

Supporting pregnant students to degree completion generates positive returns for taxpayers and communities. College graduates require less public assistance, pay more taxes, have better health outcomes, and raise children with improved educational achievement. The Pregnant Students’ Rights Act facilitates these positive outcomes by ensuring students know about resources that make degree completion feasible despite pregnancy.

Pregnancy resource centers play a crucial economic role by providing free or low-cost services that would otherwise represent insurmountable financial barriers. These centers offer free pregnancy tests, ultrasounds confirming viability and gestational age, prenatal vitamins and nutritional counseling, maternity clothing, baby clothes, diapers, formula, and other essential supplies, parenting education and child development classes, and referrals to medical care, housing assistance, and other services. The annual value of services provided by pregnancy resource centers—$452 million according to the Charlotte Lozier Institute—represents a massive investment in helping women overcome the financial barriers to carrying pregnancies to term.

Organizations like Pro-Life Payments amplify this economic support by channeling resources to pregnancy centers and life-affirming organizations. Pro-Life Payments donates 15% of its gross revenue—not profit, but total revenue—to pro-life organizations that protect the unborn and serve women in crisis pregnancies. This business model transforms routine financial transactions into sustainable funding for the support networks that pregnant college students desperately need. When businesses and nonprofits choose payment processors aligned with their values, they ensure that every credit card transaction contributes to building the infrastructure of support that makes the Pregnant Students’ Rights Act effective.

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Opposition to the Pregnant Students’ Rights Act and Responses

Despite its life-saving potential, the Pregnant Students’ Rights Act faces opposition from abortion advocacy organizations and their political allies. Critics argue that the legislation represents a “thinly veiled anti-abortion law” that fails to address key barriers to pregnant students’ educational attainment while stigmatizing pregnancy outcomes. Some opponents contend that information alone is insufficient and that without enforceable support mechanisms and systemic accommodations, the legislation falls short of meaningful assistance.

These critiques fundamentally misunderstand the Act’s purpose and effect. The Pregnant Students’ Rights Act does not restrict abortion access, does not require students to carry pregnancies to term, and does not impose penalties on students who choose abortion. Instead, it simply ensures that students receive accurate information about existing rights and available resources. The characterization of information dissemination as anti-abortion reveals an unsettling assumption: that abortion advocacy depends on keeping women ignorant of alternatives.

The claim that the legislation stigmatizes pregnancy outcomes inverts reality. Current campus cultures often stigmatize pregnant students, with faculty discouraging them from continuing their programs and peers expressing surprise that they chose to continue their pregnancies. By formalizing institutional support and requiring systematic information dissemination, the Pregnant Students’ Rights Act normalizes pregnancy and parenthood as compatible with academic achievement, thereby reducing stigma.

The assertion that information alone is insufficient misses the point entirely. No legislation can single-handedly solve all challenges facing pregnant students, but providing essential information represents a critical first step. Women consistently report that lack of knowledge about available support influenced their abortion decisions. Ensuring students know about accommodations, resources, and rights directly addresses this information deficit. Moreover, the Act works in conjunction with existing Title IX protections that do mandate enforceable accommodations—the legislation ensures students know how to access those existing rights.

Senate consideration of the companion bill (S. 3627) resulted in a 47-45 procedural vote against advancing the legislation, preventing the upper chamber from considering it despite House passage. This Senate obstruction reflects the political reality that abortion advocacy organizations wield substantial influence over Democratic lawmakers. The fact that only one Democratic representative voted for the House bill demonstrates how extreme the party’s abortion position has become—so radical that even informing students about pregnancy support options is considered objectionable.

Implementing the Pregnant Students’ Rights Act Effectively

If the Pregnant Students’ Rights Act becomes law, effective implementation will require coordinated efforts from multiple campus offices and external community organizations. Successful implementation involves several key components.

First, institutions must designate clear responsibility for coordinating pregnancy accommodations. While Title IX coordinators typically handle discrimination complaints, pregnancy support often requires collaboration across multiple offices including student health services, disability resource services, counseling centers, academic advising, housing and residence life, and student parent support programs. Some institutions have found success with team approaches that bring together representatives from relevant offices to discuss accommodations and ensure consistent, comprehensive support.

Second, colleges must develop comprehensive resource directories listing both on-campus and community resources. This requires establishing relationships with local pregnancy resource centers, adoption agencies, childcare providers, housing assistance programs, and other support organizations. Regular communication with these partners ensures that information remains current and that referral processes function smoothly.

Third, faculty and staff need training on the Pregnant Students’ Rights Act requirements, Title IX pregnancy protections, accommodation processes, and available resources. Faculty members, particularly in professional programs with rigid sequences and clinical requirements, need guidance on how to provide accommodations while maintaining program integrity. Training should emphasize that accommodations are legally required, not optional favors, and that discriminatory treatment carries serious consequences.

Fourth, institutions should create user-friendly, accessible materials presenting pregnancy accommodation information in clear, supportive language. Materials should be available in multiple formats—printed brochures, website content, videos, and infographics—and should be culturally competent and available in languages representing campus populations.

Fifth, colleges must establish efficient processes for students to request accommodations and file complaints. Bureaucratic complexity and delays undermine the Act’s protective intent. Students facing pregnancy already navigate substantial challenges—institutional processes should reduce rather than compound those burdens.

Finally, effective implementation requires cultural change. When pregnancy is viewed as a problem to be solved rather than a normal life event worthy of support, students feel unwelcome and unsupported regardless of formal policies. Institutions must actively cultivate campus cultures that celebrate student parents, recognize the challenges they navigate, and affirm that parenthood and academic achievement are compatible goals.

The Pregnant Students’ Rights Act and the Broader Pro-Life Movement

The Pregnant Students’ Rights Act represents an essential component of comprehensive pro-life strategy. The pro-life movement has always recognized that protecting unborn lives requires more than legal restrictions on abortion—it demands building robust networks of support that empower women to choose life even in challenging circumstances.

Post-Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the pro-life movement entered a new chapter focused on demonstrating that restrictions on abortion can coexist with comprehensive support for pregnant women and mothers. Critics of pro-life policies routinely claim that pro-life advocates care only about birth, not about supporting mothers and children afterward. The Pregnant Students’ Rights Act directly refutes this narrative by ensuring college students receive information about comprehensive support networks.

The Act also exemplifies the principle that preventing abortion requires addressing the circumstances that drive women toward abortion. Women rarely choose abortion because they desire it intrinsically—they choose abortion because they perceive it as the only viable option given their circumstances. College students facing unplanned pregnancies fear academic failure, financial catastrophe, family disappointment, and the loss of their envisioned futures. When colleges systematically communicate that accommodations exist, that resources are available, and that federal law protects their rights, these fears diminish and life-affirming choices become conceivable.

Pro-life individuals and organizations can support the Pregnant Students’ Rights Act and its objectives through several practical actions. First, advocate for the Senate companion bill by contacting senators and urging them to support the legislation. Second, support local pregnancy resource centers that provide the services pregnant college students need. These centers depend entirely on private donations and volunteers. Third, ensure that pro-life businesses and ministries align their financial transactions with their values by partnering with payment processors that fund pro-life work rather than funding abortion advocacy.

This last point deserves emphasis. Many pro-life organizations continue processing payments through companies like PayPal, which supports abortion travel benefits, or Stripe, which donated to the ACLU to fight against pro-life policies. Every percentage point these companies extract in processing fees represents resources diverted away from pregnancy center services—and worse, those fees flow to corporations actively advancing abortion access. The contradiction is stark: pro-life ministries working to save babies while simultaneously funding the infrastructure that kills them.

Pro-Life Payments offers a solution that transforms this dynamic. As a Christian credit card processing company, Pro-Life Payments donates 15% of its gross revenue to pro-life organizations. When pro-life businesses and ministries switch to Pro-Life Payments, they convert unavoidable processing fees into direct funding for pregnancy resource centers, adoption agencies, and life-affirming ministries. This creates a self-sustaining ecosystem where business growth directly increases community impact.

Conclusion: The Pregnant Students’ Rights Act as a Lifeline

The Pregnant Students’ Rights Act offers pregnant college students something profoundly simple yet profoundly powerful: knowledge. Knowledge that they have rights. Knowledge that accommodations exist. Knowledge that resources are available. Knowledge that they don’t have to choose between their education and their child.

For too long, this information gap has claimed countless lives—babies who were never born because their mothers believed continuing their education required abortion. The false choice between academic achievement and motherhood has devastated families, haunted women who later regretted their decisions, and deprived society of both the college graduates these women would have become and the children who would have enriched our communities.

H.R. 6359 dismantles this false choice by mandating that colleges clearly communicate the truth: pregnancy and academic success are compatible. Federal law protects pregnant students’ rights. Campus and community resources provide comprehensive support. Discrimination based on choosing life is illegal and will be held accountable.

The legislation passed the House with bipartisan support, demonstrating that protecting pregnant students transcends partisan divisions. Now the Senate must act. Every day of delay represents more young women making irreversible decisions based on incomplete information. The Pregnant Students’ Rights Act is not merely good policy—it is an urgent moral imperative that will save lives, protect educational access, empower women, and affirm the fundamental dignity of both mothers and their unborn children.

As individuals, organizations, and communities committed to life, we must advocate vigorously for this legislation while simultaneously building the support infrastructure it envisions. Support pregnancy resource centers. Choose payment processors that fund life-affirming work. Create campus cultures that welcome pregnant students. Offer practical assistance to student parents. Pray for women facing these difficult decisions. And never underestimate the life-saving power of information delivered at the right moment to someone who desperately needs to know that choosing life is possible.

The Pregnant Students’ Rights Act transforms the landscape of possibility for pregnant college students. It ensures that every young woman facing an unplanned pregnancy during her college years will know that she has options, that support exists, that her rights are protected, and that her dreams of both motherhood and academic achievement can coexist. In a culture that too often pressures women toward abortion, this legislation stands as a beacon of hope, a commitment to support, and a recognition that we can—and must—do better.

Pro-Life Payments is a Christian credit card processing company dedicated to supporting pro-life causes through financial services aligned with faith-based values. By donating 15% of gross revenue to pro-life organizations, Pro-Life Payments transforms routine business transactions into sustainable funding for pregnancy resource centers, adoption services, and life-affirming ministries that help pregnant college students and mothers in need. Learn more at prolifepayments.com.