Panel Explores Pregnancy Options

Valuable resources are available to pregnant women on campus if they only know where to look, panelists at the Harvard Pregnancy Resource Forum told about thirty students last night in the Quincy House Junior Common Room.

The forum, organized by Harvard Right To Life--an anti-abortion student organization--brought together a panel that included Assistant Dean of the College Karen E. Avery, Financial Aid Officer Matthew J. DeGreeff '98, pregnancy counselors and a student mother.

"It is doable [to have a child] at Harvard," said Marta Szabo '01-'04, the mother of one. "There are resources at

Harvard. But it's very decentralized."

Szabo, a first-semester senior who became pregnant in the spring of her first year, said she found University Health Services (UHS) to be useful, but she did not receive all the help she needed.

Panelists agreed that resources need to be more visible to pregnant students. They spoke of creating a publication to compile all resources in one place.

"These resources are available to women," said Serrin Foster, the moderator of the panel and the executive director of Feminists for Life. "It's important that they're accessible. Easily accessible."

Unknown to most students, the Office of Work and Family--usually used by faculty and staff--can connect students with such resources as daycare options, parenting classes and housing choices, UHS Head of Pregnancy Counseling Deborah Cohen told listeners.

On the financial front, some pregnant students qualify for the federal programs such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and Women, Infants and Children, which provide supplementary nutrition for babies, as well as funding through the financial aid office.

DeGreeff said daycare and housing are particular obstacles for mothers-to-be at Harvard, given the exorbitant costs of non-University housing and daycare in the area.

Although the forum was organized by a group that has taken an active stance against abortions on campus, panelists did not debate the contentious issue.

"This is not about abortion," Foster said. "We're not talking about abstinence or prevention. We're talking about resources."

UHS announced yesterday that it would make RU-486, the controversial abortion pill approved by the Federal Drug Administration in September 2000, available to students through referral services.