BYU professor appears to question whether someone can be pregnant if she doesn’t know it yet

A professor at Brigham Young University (BYU) is facing criticism for seemingly promoting abortion to students during a women’s health class. According to Campus Reform, Stephanie Lutz used her “HLTH 450: Women’s Health” class to explore the concept of “interspace” in pregnancy — questioning whether a woman is really pregnant if she doesn’t know she’s pregnant.

“If she had unprotected intercourse before she takes a positive pregnancy test, there’s a pill she can take to just ensure — like in this interspace, like I don’t want to take a pregnancy test and I kind of don’t want to know if I actually conceived. This pill will just take care of it if I did, and if I didn’t…” she said, adding, “[I]t feels like a dichotomous situation, like if you are pregnant, or you aren’t pregnant. Black and white, yes or no?”

The controversial statements were also covered by the Cougar Chronicle, a conservative newspaper covering BYU news.

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Lutz further continued the discussion by asking if someone can be a “little bit” pregnant, and questioned the morality of taking abortion pills if the woman is not sure she’s pregnant yet. After Lutz’ remarks began spreading across the internet, another BYU professor chimed in on Twitter — arguing that he believes white men have no right to discuss the topic.

“Well, as another white male with no sense for what it’s like to be a woman, or pregnant, or to have white men’s hands all over your body figuratively and physically, you sure have a lot to say on the subject,” BYU Professor Mikle South wrote, before deleting his tweet.

After this, South followed up by arguing that the topic made for good education. “While my Tweet was meant for the man who retweeted this with lots more to say, I maintain that it is GOOD teaching for that BYU professor to grapple with hard topics and some vulnerability with their students,” he said. “It makes for good education.”

Of course, Lutz’ remarks are not based in any kind of science; a woman is either pregnant, or she is not.

Pregnancy is, scientifically, an objective and biological state of being. Even if someone doesn’t know she is pregnant, she is still pregnant. If someone doesn’t know they have cancer, they still have cancer. Someone’s knowledge of the situation is irrelevant. And, according to some, Lutz’ theory violates the morals BYU is supposed to stand for, according to Jacob Christensen, who writes for the Cougar Chronicle.

“There is no interspace, there is no ambiguity, there is no misunderstanding: abortion is a moral sin,” he told Campus Reform. “Brigham Young University is a religious [Latter Day Saints] institution founded on the gospel of Jesus Christ; standards, morals, values, and beliefs are necessary to be upheld in such a setting. Professor Lutz’s comments are not only wrong, but they are directly contrary to the doctrine of Jesus Christ taught at the university.”