Students at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, a public university, are required to complete 30 hours of service learning in the community. According to The College Fix, the university’s undergraduate catalog says the service-learning requirement is “intended to provide students with an opportunity to serve their community, apply knowledge gained in the classroom, enhance their critical thinking skills and become informed, active, and responsible citizens.”
But while the university has awarded credit to students for volunteering or attending a lecture at Planned Parenthood, the school is refusing to award students credit for volunteering their time teaching classes to children in a Christian environment.
The College Fix notes:
In their service, the two students, Alexandra Liebl and Madelyn Rysavy, not only taught the young children about the Catholic faith, but also helped the kids better their reading skills, understand some Latin phrases, and learn about Biblical history. Additionally, they engaged in discussions with the kids on topics such as character building and forgiveness.
Yet those efforts were denied credit by university officials on the basis that it was not service-learning – but rather religious proselytizing – and thus does not count.
“No public university should ever use a community service program as a vehicle to advance and instill anti-religious bias,” said Alliance Defending Freedom Legal Counsel Travis Barham, in a press release. “If the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire wants to require its students to perform community service, it must treat all forms of community service as equally valuable. The Constitution and federal court precedent prohibit it from targeting religious community service and denying students credit for it. That kind of animosity toward and discrimination against religion is unconstitutional.”
What should be just as shocking, however, is that an institution of learning would offer students credit to contribute time and energy to the nation’s largest abortion provider. Catholic universities including Boston College, DePaul University and Georgetown have partnered with pro-abortion organizations, and Texas Christian University partnered with Planned Parenthood, even offering credit to students who completed an internship with Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas.
Despite Planned Parenthood’s repeated claims that abortion only comprises three percent of its services, the organization commits more than 300,000 abortions annually:
In the past 100 years, Planned Parenthood has aborted at least 6,803,782 unborn babies, documented in its own annual reports. However, as LifeNews notes, “the abortion chain was doing abortions prior to… Roe v. Wade in 1973,” so the actual number of Planned Parenthood’s abortion victims is probably higher.
