The University of Idaho has decided to not only forbid staff and faculty from offering any abortion information to students — a crime that can get them fired — they are also, unbelievably, suggesting an end to birth control access.
If an employee at the University of Idaho merely mentions to a student that they support abortion, or worse, gives a student information on how to obtain an abortion, they can now lose their job, says new school guidelines that were issued on Friday. Outside of their job, they could also face felony charges "and be permanently barred from all future state employment," according to email obtained by The Washington Post.
Not only is abortion talk forbidden, but the school guidelines suggest that birth control no longer be offered at the university. "…We are advising a conservative approach here, that the university not provide standard birth control itself." Even old-fashioned condoms will not be offered as a form of birth control, but they will offered "for the purpose of helping prevent the spread of STDs," according to the guidelines. (Thank god for loopholes.)
From The Washington Post:
Abortion rights advocates were quick to point to the University of Idaho's new policy as evidence of the antiabortion movement's broader ambitions.
"We always knew extremists wouldn't stop at banning abortion; they'd target birth control next," Rebecca Gibron, chief executive of Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawai'i, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky, wrote in a statement. "The University of Idaho's announcement is the canary in the coal mine, an early sign of the larger, coordinated effort to attack birth control access." …
Staff and faculty at the University of Idaho have been reluctant to discuss the new guidance, said one employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect her job.
"I think there's a lot of fear," said the employee, who said she cried in her office after receiving the message on Friday afternoon.
"I think about the resident hall advisers. This is the kind of advice they give out if students are sexually active and not ready for a family," she said. "Now it's the kind of thing that could get them fired and charged with a felony."
