According to an email published by LifeNews.com, Texas Christian University (TCU) is offering academic credit for an internship with the local branch of Planned Parenthood. In the description of the internship, the university staff member pointed to a puff piece about Planned Parenthood’s history as an example of what a student would produce.
“It is a disgrace for a large Christian university to offer credit for an internship at the largest abortion provider in the nation,” declared Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America.
The email explained that the internship would be through the history department. It would not involve taking part in abortions. Planned Parenthood apparently asked the Christian college to send a student to document its local history in a very supportive manner.
Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas is looking for a volunteer historian to develop a project highlighting its history in Fort Worth since it was established here in 1935. Their office, on John Ryan Drive about 15 minutes from campus, has a substantial archival collection of photographs, scrapbooks, and other materials. There are also opportunities for oral history, interviewing local families who have long been involved in support of PP. The PP office will provide a computer and space to work.
TCU students could take on this as a research project for a class, or they could receive three credits of HIST 30073, internship in Public History. Key themes could include local history, gender, and the history of health care. The PP office would like as a final project a 5-10 minute visual presentation (Prezi, video, etc) of its history, to present to other groups and organizations in Fort Worth. One possible model for such a presentation is on their website; that they’d like is a Fort Worth-specific version of this.
The email linked to a history report headlined, “Care. No matter what.” This positive, health care-focused message pervades the Planned Parenthood literature, and apparently the organization is asking a student at a Christian college to produce a similar puff piece.
It is unfortunately unlikely that Planned Parenthood would let a student intern create a video project like this one from the Center for Medical Progress. In the CMP sting video of Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas, Dr. Amna Dermish admits that she has never dissected a fetal brain, but she said the idea “will give me something to strive for!”
If Planned Parenthood was in control of the internship, it would probably deny the student any credit for a project which shows their business in a negative light.
Next Page: TCU responds to pro-life criticism.
When a self-described Christian organization is working with the nation’s largest abortion provider, that fact brings into question whether TCU is fully committed to the pro-life cause.
“Instead of educating and equipping students on how to persuasively discuss the pro-life viewpoint and help women in crisis, they instead reward students for spending valuable time volunteering for an organization that ends the lives of over 325,000 innocent human beings a year,” Hawkins declared, eviscerating TCU for offering such a program. “And just think of the parents who thought their child would be receiving a valuable Christian-focused education at a private school. They are paying over $53,500 a year to be swindled.”
Texas Christian University denied any idea that its internships represented a philosophical agreement with Planned Parenthood. “The university offers many internships in any given semester, and does not support political or personal statements associated with any of them,” a TCU spokesperson told TheBlaze. “Students are encouraged to seek those that match their interests.
The spokesperson also said TCU “strives to provide diverse learning opportunities for students to effectively prepare them for the global community.”
Many Christians consider abortion to be murder, and opposition to the practice dates back to the very earliest days of the Christian church. Psalm 139 praises God’s personal creation of each human being: “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.”
TCU could still oppose abortion while allowing an internship with Planned Parenthood, but the connection certainly does not look good.
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