A lack of transportation, lengthy distances to the nearest abortion clinic, the high cost of the procedure (about $600 in California), and abortion misinformation as well as stigma can make it hard for students who want an abortion to get the quality care they seek.
“In my first year in college, I didn’t have a car, and it was really difficult for me to just go grocery shopping,” said Brenda Vargas, an undergraduate student at San Jose State University. “I can’t imagine someone who wants an abortion and can’t get it because they don’t have a ride or are working and can’t take a break to go across town or hours away.”
But in California, public colleges are working to provide medication abortion care to students on campus to ease that burden. Medication abortion is a safe, effective procedure where people take two kinds of pills (called mifepristone and misoprostol) up to ten weeks of pregnancy.
Vargas is a member of the Pro-Abortion Student Advisory Board at Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity (URGE), an advocacy organization that has been working with California public colleges to help their health centers provide medication abortion care on campus. In 2019, the state passed a law called SB 24 that requires the University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU) campuses to offer students medication abortion on campus by January 2023.
“At the end of the day, abortion is healthcare,” said Vargas. “Just like if you break your arm and get a check-up at a health center on campus, that’s the way we want to approach medication abortion care. So that students can thrive in college and don’t have to drop out if they have an unwanted pregnancy.”
Yet the landmark Roe v. Wade decision of 1973, which established abortion as a constitutional right across the country, could be overturned in June or July 2022. That's when the Supreme Court will announce its ruling on a Mississippi ban that directly challenges Roe. A six-week ban on abortion in Texas has also been in effect for almost four months, though six weeks is before many women know they are pregnant. The Supreme Court last week did not decide to halt the Texas ban, which is known as SB 8.
