Title IX showdown on abortion
A recent Supreme Court ruling clashed with existing laws, producing a Title IX showdown on abortion of sorts in schools, colleges, and universities.
The U.S. Department of Education reminded educational institutions that Title IX protects students, faculty, and staff against discrimination based on pregnancy and related conditions, including the termination of pregnancy. Officials released the three-page fact sheet 100 days after the Supreme Court canceled the constitutional right to an abortion by overturning Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey in a ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
Title IX has protected abortion as an integral part of health care since the first Title IX regulations in 1975. Schools must treat students and workers who are pregnant, have an ectopic (or “false”) pregnancy, get an abortion, or are recovering from any of these just as they would treat anyone else with another short-term disability. They cannot retaliate by limiting the person’s access to classes, extracurricular activities, etc.
Schools and colleges don’t have to offer abortion in their health care services, though. As I wrote in The Washington Post, previous Supreme Court interference with Title IX and other civil rights laws in the 1980s led Congress to pass the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987. Part of getting that Act past conservative senators was a compromise that removed the right to abortion in school health services. At the last minute, women’s advocates inserted an amendment saying that “nothing in Title IX permits a penalty to be imposed on any person because the person is seeking or has received any benefit or service related to a legal abortion.”
Since the Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs, at least 14 states have banned or severely restricted abortion, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported. Some even imposed penalties on anyone who helps someone else get an abortion.
The Education Department is signaling that it won’t tolerate this kind of retaliation by people in educational institutions. The new guidance ends with a page on how to file a Title IX complaint with the Office for Civil Rights if you think a school is discriminating based on pregnancy and related conditions. The Washington Post posted a nifty Legislation Tracker to show which states have changed their abortion laws.
Elsewhere
More than 200 students at Yale rallied to demand that the university expand its reproductive and transgender health care. Students at more than 50 high schools, colleges, and universities planned walk-outs to protest insufficient reproductive rights. Barnard College became the latest to say it will offer abortion pills on campus.
There were 309 protests related to sexual violence in schools between May 2021 and August 2022, 174 of which were focused on colleges and universities, according to the Crowd Counting Consortium. The Chronicle of Higher Education looked at what changes these protests did or didn’t produce.
Utah State University agreed to pay $500,000 to settle a student’s lawsuit for mishandling sexual assaults. Huntington University in northeast Indiana put two coaches on leave following reports that they drugged and sexually assaulted students. The first of three compulsory annual reviews of the University of Iowa found that it’s making its way toward compliance with Title IX in athletics.
University of Pittsburgh students protested recent sexual assaults on campus and shared concerns that the administration is not doing enough to protect them. An editorial in the newspaper serving the universities of Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s, and Holy Cross noted that five students shared stories of sexual assault on social media last week; the editors demanded more action to protect students. A report found that the California State University chancellor mishandled complaints about sexual harassment, as reported in the Fresno State Student and in USA Today. but he’ll soon be teaching at California Polytechnic State University.
Remember the story about the Huntsville (Ark.) Board of Education settling charges of mishandling sexual harassment cases for a total of $1 and an admission of liability? Now prosecutors have charged an administrator and a coach with misdemeanors for failing to report sexual assaults, as required by law. San Diego State University officials have given shifting accounts of how they have responded since a student reported a gang rape by football players months ago. The Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity closed its University of Miami chapter after reports of women being drugged at a pool party and a video of chapter members chanting about raping and murdering women.
A judge magistrate threw out a lawsuit filed by a former student against Williams College, which found him responsible for sexual misconduct. An appeals court threw out a lawsuit against Princeton University by a tenured professor who was fired for sexual harassment. Another judged denied class-action status to more than 70 current and former employees of the University of Montana in a suit over sex discrimination.
The ACLU filed a Title IX complaint against Central Bucks School District, the fourth largest in Pennsylvania, alleging that it discriminated against LGBTQ students. The former president of Georgetown (Ky.) College sued after being fired following reports of sexual assault and other misconduct. The Virginia Military Institute planned to award a former superintendent its highest honor even though he resigned following an investigative report that found he allowed a racist and sexist culture to flourish there.
A student’s request for a gender-neutral homecoming court at L’Ans Creuse High School, Harrison Township, Mich. got rejected by the school district. In Vermont, a 14-year-old transgender student at Randolph Union High School and her family are being bombarded with hateful messages from bigots, and a local news outlet deleted its story on the controversy after the victims called it inaccurate and inflammatory. Politico examined the election-year politics that are manipulating the issue of transgender student rights, especially in athlertics.
The tug-of-war continues between the Michigan State University president and its board of trustees around proper review of its Title IX reports and management of sexual harassment. Read more here and here.
On the pro sports front, how many times must we hear of sexual abuse by male coaches in U.S. Women’s Soccer, Sally Jenkins wonders in The Washington Post.
On the up side
Here’s something you don’t see every day: New Hanover County Schools, Wilmington, N.C. conducted an independent audit to assess whether or not its schools comply with Title IX. They don’t, not surprisingly, but at least they’re planning on addressing deficiencies rather than waiting for federal complaints and lawsuits to force them to act. And some Title IX consultants explained a phrase I’m hearing more and more — that Title IX regulations are a floor, not a ceiling. Aim high to implement the spirit of Title IX, not just the basic requirements of the law.
Where you’ll find me
Out on the campaign trails, that’s where! Our democracy needs us right now to volunteer for candidates in the November 8 elections. Other than that, look for me here:
Wednesday, October 19, 2022, 1:00-2:30 p.m. CT — The University of Texas at Austin’s Center for Women in Law hosts an online conversation with me as part of their “Ex Libris” authors series. Register here.
Monday, October 24, 5 p.m. ET — I’ll be speaking at Le Moyne College in Grewen Auditorium. If you’re near Syracuse, N.Y., come through!
Friday, October 28, 9 a.m. CT — I’ll be an in-person panelist at Northwestern University’s three-day conference, “Title IX at 50: Past. Present. Future?”
Thursday, November 3, 7 p.m. CT — St. Louis, come on down! Join me at Left Bank Books for a conversation and book signing.
November 12 — I’m looking forward to three appearances at the National Women’s Studies Association conference in Minneapolis. Join me first at a 9:30 a.m. panel on “Women’s Politics: Finding a Way Out of No Way,” and then at a Feminist Author Showcase at 1:15 p.m. Central Time. At 3 p.m. I’ll be signing books in the Exhibit Hall at the Feminist Book Club booth.
Friday, November 18, 12 noon — Get yer signed copy of 37 Words straight from my pen when I stop to sign books at Gathering Volumes in Perrysburg, Ohio, near Toledo.
February 2023 — I’ll speak at Iowa State University’s Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics in Ames, Iowa. Stay tuned for details.
*** Would you like to set up an in-person or Zoom session with me for your organization or book club? Reach me through my Contact page.***
The Nation magazine published an excerpt from my chapter 5, which introduces Title IX’s application in the movement against sexual violence. I published an article in the Washington Post’s Made by History section, this one on “The true mother of Title IX. And why it matters now more than ever.” The Christian Science Monitor included 37 Words in two articles — a cover story on “Title IX at 50” and a sidebar examining the racial gap among women athletes in colleges. Read about the Supreme Court’s history of curtailing Title IX and other civil rights laws in my article in The Washington Post Made by History section. The Washington Monthly gave 37 Words a fine review — check it out. The Wall Street Journal published a review of my book and I wrote a Letter to the Editor correcting some misinformation in that review. See other previous appearances and media coverage of 37 Words listed here.
Here are links to order your copy of my book 37 Words: Title IX and Fifty Years of Fighting Sex Discrimination (The New Press, 2022).
(Caption for top photo: A spring 2022 protest demanding that the Supreme Court not take away rights to abortion, which the court later did. Photo by legoktm via Wikimedia Commons.)
#TitleIX #37Words #TitleIX50th
