The Cardinal Newman Society, a conservative Roman Catholic organization, said on Monday that two dozen Catholic colleges had removed mentions of Planned Parenthood from their Web sites after facing criticism over the material.
But while several colleges acknowledged deleting material, officials at five colleges on the group’s list denied removing any mention of the reproductive-rights organization. And many of the Web pages that the colleges supposedly modified still mention Planned Parenthood.
The Cardinal Newman Society has long criticized Catholic colleges for promoting practices that it believes are inconsistent with Catholic doctrine. Last month, as lawmakers debated federal support for Planned Parenthood, the society released a report that admonished colleges for including references to the organization in online medical resources, internship listings, and staff biographies.
The society reported on Monday that 24 colleges had since removed information about Planned Parenthood from their Web sites. “Probably in most of the cases, the college leaders were unaware of the links and genuinely wanting to see those removed,” Patrick J. Reilly, the group’s president, said on Wednesday.
Officials at three colleges—the University of Dayton, Saint Leo University, and St. Catherine University—said they had removed the Planned Parenthood information either directly or indirectly in response to the report.
The University of Dayton purchased a digital flier for its career-services Web site, called “What Can I Do With This Major?”, without knowing that Planned Parenthood was one of many options provided, said Teri Rizvi, a spokeswoman. Once officials learned of the reference, it modified the flier, she said.
“As a Catholic university, the University of Dayton does not affiliate itself with Planned Parenthood,” Ms. Rizvi wrote in an e-mail.
But officials at five colleges listed by the Cardinal Newman Society, including some of the more-prominent institutions on the list, rejected the idea that they had deleted any mention of Planned Parenthood from their Web sites. A few of them said the information was still in the same online location.
“The Cardinal Newman Society has no academic standing and has been admonished by Catholic bishops for using scare tactics that are designed to induce elderly donors into supporting their misguided efforts,” said Jack Dunn, a spokesman at Boston College. “As a Jesuit, Catholic university, Boston College has never been influenced by them.”
The society had said that an online biography of Connie Griffin, an adjunct literature professor at Boston College, had previously listed course materials from Fall 2006 that recommended Web sites for Planned Parenthood and other like-minded organizations. The syllabus is no longer on the Web site, and Ms. Griffin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Web page of another college cited in the report, Edgewood College of Wisconsin, still has links and phone numbers to Planned Parenthood. Officials at Gonzaga University, the University of San Diego, the University of San Francisco, and Dominican University of California said they did not remove any information about Planned Parenthood from their Web sites.
“I don’t know how they can say that it’s been removed,” said David Sonntag, a Gonzaga spokesman. “If you go to the site, you’ll find it’s still there.”
When asked about the discrepancies, Mr. Reilly of the Cardinal Newman Society said he wasn’t sure why some colleges were listed as deleting Planned Parenthood material when they hadn’t done so. “I have no explanation for that,” he said.
