Many universities are proud to provide students with a variety of sexual and reproductive health services, including contraception, screening for sexually transmitted diseases, and even insurance coverage to end pregnancy.
What they do not tend to offer is abortion by pills or procedures. To that end, they refer students to other clinics and clinics.
For some students, that standard care is no longer sufficient, and there is no Supreme Court decision to overturn the Roe v. Wade case. They hope that the university will increase access to abortion, reduce stress and disability, and give women more autonomy and control of the process.
The largest of many of their wishlists are medicines to end unwanted pregnancies.
Niharika Rao, a senior at Barnard College in New York who uses pronunciation, said she requested that students have access to drug abortion on campus.
Abortion with a drug involves taking two types of tablets approved by the federal government for use within the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. It is more widely available in student health centers and is different from emergency contraceptives that can be taken to prevent pregnancy before it begins.
Several universities, including the University of Illinois at Chicago, already offer abortion medications. The University of Massachusetts Amherst will be available in the fall. In California, a new law requires all public universities in the state to provide drug abortion on campus by January. Some campuses, like Berkeley, have already begun to do so.
However, due to the changing situation of abortion law and the complexity of politics, it is difficult to convince more universities to offer abortion with drugs.
Universities in states with restricted abortion laws, such as Missouri, may not be able to legally provide abortion laws. Other universities, especially publicly funded universities in the state where the law is fluid, do not want to reach the wrong side of legislation.
Universities are advancing cautiously, even in states that protect the right to abortion. Providing abortion medicine on campus, rather than referrals to students elsewhere, is personal, according to some university admins who asked not to be named because of problem sensitivity. It involves the university in medical decisions that are sometimes emotionally and physically burdensome.
Administrators say the university must be prepared not only for stressed students, but also for students who are reassured by the procedure. They need to have the ability to provide emergency medical care. And they must be prepared to provide safety and privacy to the women entering, considering that protesters can appear at the door of the university health center.
“There are some valid security concerns,” said Dr. Guy W. Nicolet, Vice President of University Health Services at the University of California, Berkeley. “Not all providers feel the ability and comfort to do this,” he said.
However, Dr. Nicolet said, in balance, Berkeley’s medical services believed that providing on-campus abortion with counseling was a sensitive approach. “Recognizing that students are often the first to leave their homes and often access medical care away from their homes because of their campus connections, they are a reliable source of medical care for their students. I’m trying to be, “he said.
Cost is also an issue. In California, the new law does not pay for abortion medicine and students must pay with insurance or cash. Community colleges are exempt from the requirement to provide drug abortion, but a 2021 survey estimates that these students are seeking 865 to 1,109 drug abortions per month. Women with children are less likely to graduate than women without children, according to data from the US Department of Education.
Read more about the end of the Roe v. Wade case
According to 2019 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, women in their twenties account for more than half, or about 57%, of abortions.
According to a 2018 study by researchers at the University of California in The Journal of Adolescent Health, about 300-500 students at a public university in California sought drug abortion each month. 62% of the students in the system spent more than 30 minutes on public transport from the nearest abortion provider. The average cost of a drug abortion was $ 604 and the average waiting time for the first appointment was one week. This can cause the pregnancy to fall beyond the approved period of 10 weeks when the drug can be prescribed.
“This happens often. People are forced to another semester waiting for referrals from the Student Health Center,” said Cindy Cruz, Western Program Director of advocacy group Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity.
ZZenobia, a graduate student at California State Institute of Technology Humboldt, a rural campus with restricted access to abortion services, may miss classes and jobs for students who have to go to a distant abortion clinic. It states.
“The entire lab could be missing because we have to be there for an hour and back on the bus for an hour,” says Mx. Zenobia has encouraged abortion services to be more sensitive to transgender students.
At Barnard College and Columbia University, where the right to abortion is not at stake, student activists who demanded drug abortion through the university’s medical services were dissatisfied with the institutional response.
Colombia provided them with standard university handouts such as: Nonprofits such as clinics and Planned Parenthood can increase anonymity. “
Mx. Lao, a student at Barnard College, said that abortion-seeking students often go to the planned parent’s clinic in Lower Manhattan or Bronx, which is the target of anti-abortion protesters, including his fellow students. said.
“I argue that going to your campus clinic is more anonymous,” Mx said. Lao said.
Mx. Lao said they felt a little more optimistic in a meeting with Barnard College health managers last week.
Through a spokesperson, Bernard is working with students and local organizations to “strengthen” reproductive healthcare, including abortion, and “determine what it looks like in a post-low environment.” He said he had an abortion.
Universities are also receiving backlash from opponents of abortion.
Carol Tobias, chairman of the National Right to Life Committee, an anti-abortion organization, said the provision of drug-based abortion on campus created potential complications, as in the case of undiagnosed ectopic pregnancies. “I don’t think this should be distributed like aspirin to young girls who may not know what’s going on on a college campus,” she said.
Grace Lake, Senior Nursing Department at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, said the overthrow of Rho empowered anti-abortion activists on campus. She is the secretary of the recently formed group Students for Life, working with the prime minister of the university for day care services for students with children.
“In my view, there is no reason why there should be access available to allow students to end their child’s life, especially through school,” she said.
In states where abortion laws can be stricter, students are trying to find alternatives. At Michigan State University, some students are worried that access to abortion in the state is sparse, as the 1931 law is now bound in court and criminalizes almost all types of abortion.
When University President Samuel L. Stanley Jr. acknowledged “diversity of opinion” on this issue, but stated that sexual and reproductive health care was a “basic human right”, they said. I wasn’t relieved.
“I wasn’t enough,” said Lana Heaney, the up-and-coming junior who organized the rally.
For now, Heaney said women are working on a “backup plan.” This is a promotion to distribute contraceptives and Plan B on campus in case the law comes into force.
Activists also hope that abortion doulas can help women taking abortion medications. This year, the reproductive health group Advocates for Youth helped 100 people (three-quarters of current and recent college students) train to have an abortion doula. These doulas provide information and emotional support to those who are experiencing an abortion.
“Tactical support is really on the rise, all of the various logistical support needed to enable access to vehicles, shelters, funding, and abortion care,” said Advocates for Youth, director of abortion access. Tamara Marzouk says.
Caitlyn Bull, who will become a senior at Oberlin College in the fall, has been participating in the Oberlin Doula Collective, which is not officially affiliated with the school, since the year of freshman. “It was very cool to see the campus community gather around this job,” she said.
The university was sending a message in support of the right to reproduction, she said, “but we live in a hostile state.”
In more volatile situations after lows, abortion advocates also need to be careful — just like college. Because “sharing” is legal, they are trained in how to “share” information about self-managed abortion. Because “sharing” is legal.
“When we are devoted to potentially giving medical advice or saying’you do or should do this’, it can be interpreted as medical or legal advice. There is, “she said.
Kitty Bennett Contributed to the research.