Georgetown University Awarded at
Ninth Annual Pregnancy Resource Forum

Serrin Foster, president of Feminists for Life, honored representatives of Georgetown University with Feminists for Life's Elizabeth Cady Stanton Award on the occasion of the school's 9th annual Pregnancy Resource Forum on Monday, November 21. The award, named for the mother of the women's movement, recognizes Georgetown for hosting the first FFL Pregnancy Resource Forum in 1997, inspiring similar events on other campuses across the nation, and making significant progress toward meeting the needs of pregnant and parenting students on the Georgetown campus. Feminists for Life's groundbreaking Pregnancy Resource Forums inspired the introduction of the Elizabeth Cady Stanton Pregnant and Parenting Student Services Act of 2005.

"Feminists for Life is proud to be a catalyst for change," said Foster, "and Georgetown deserves credit for the remarkable progress the school has made for pregnant and parenting students. They're setting an example for other colleges and universities."

Nine years ago, in 1997, Georgetown University hosted the first Pregnancy Resource Forum moderated by Serrin Foster. Representatives from Georgetown's Health Education Services, Residential Life, Campus Ministry and the nearby Northwest Center participated. Foster encouraged both pro-life and pro-choice students to attend and contribute to the non-confrontational event intended to identify, publicize and develop resources for pregnant and parenting students.

The first forum proved a powerful medium for change. Within two years Georgetown had set aside endowed family housing near campus, established Hoya Kids Day Care, established an assistance hotline for pregnant students, and cross-trained counselors to address pregnancy and parenting resources as well as sexual assault and domestic violence.

Since that first event, the Pregnancy Resource Forum has become an annual campus-changing event. Every year panelists from Georgetown administration and the Northwest Center gather with students to re-evaluate resources and build upon the improvements of past years.

Panelists at the 2005 forum, moderated by Foster, included Carol Day of Health Education Services, Dean Helen Karn, Chaplain-in-Residence Anne Elisabeth Giuliana and Jenni Graves of the Northwest Center.

Feminists for Life has also brought its College Outreach Program and Pregnancy Resource Forums to numerous other colleges and universities around the nation, including Harvard, Berkeley, Notre Dame, University of San Diego, Loyola Baltimore, Stanford, Northwestern, University of Chicago and Swarthmore, among others.

Serrin Foster explains the Elizabeth Cady Stanton Pregnant and Parenting Student Services Act of 2005, introduced two weeks ago by Senator Elizabeth Dole and Congresswoman Melissa Hart, in an article published Sunday, November 20, 2005, in The Washington Times.