The Students for Life chapter at Ball State University filed a federal discrimination lawsuit last week against the Indiana-based public institution for refusing funding to their group.
The anti-abortion group had requested that the Student Activity Fee Committee, which is made up of students and administrators, grant $300 for the group’s initiative, “Pregnant on Campus.” The initiative helps students who are pregnant or parenting by giving them information for organizations that can assist them emotionally and financially, or help them with other material needs.
Although the institution denied funding to Students for Life in February, it has used mandatory student fees to fund other groups, including Feminists for Action, which used the money to promote Planned Parenthood, Secular Student Alliance, who hosted a “God is Dead: Life without Religion” event, and Spectrum, which promotes a pro-LGBTQ agenda.
The university required each student to pay $1,318 in mandatory fees for the 2017-2018 school year. The committee stated it could not support a group that “engages in activities, advocacy, or speech in order to advance a particular political interest, religion, religious faith or ideology,” as noted in a Students for Life news release.
Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian nonprofit that is representing the group in the lawsuit, argues that public universities like Ball State are not allowed to discriminate against certain groups.
“Public universities are supposed to provide a marketplace of ideas, but that market can’t function properly if the heavy hand of government promotes some views over others,” said Alliance Defending Freedom legal counsel Caleb Dalton in a statement.
“While Ball State University pledges to ‘respect and learn from differences in people, ideas, and opinions,’ it has failed to respect or listen to Students for Life,” Dalton continued. “The college’s unconstitutional actions treat these pro-life students as second-class, denying full participation in campus life while mandating every pro-life student pay more than $1,000 in student fees per year that help fund opposing viewpoints.”
An spokesperson for Ball State University declined to comment on litigation to the Ball State Daily News student newspaper.
