Health
California Public Universities May Soon be Required to Offer Abortion Services
Would become the first state to require medication abortion services on campus.
The California Senate approved legislation yesterday that, if signed into law, would require all public universities to offer medication abortion services. That would make California the first state to have such a law for colleges.
Students at the 36 University of California and California State University campuses would be granted access to medication inducing abortion services at their campus health care centers by 2022.
“I firmly believe that all students should be able to decide what to do with their own bodies and when to factor a family into their life,” said Sen. Connie Leyva, D-Chino, the bill’s author. “After all, women do not lose the constitutional right to end a pregnancy simply because they are a college student.”
CSU officials worry the mandate would impose severe costs for liability insurance, safety improvements, medical training and round-the-clock phone support for medical emergencies, said Toni Molle, a spokeswoman for the CSU chancellor’s office.
“Currently our CSU health centers offer basic health services, however, the administration of medications still requires a level of expertise that our health center staff may not have,” Molle said.
A group of students at Fresno State have been publicly opposing any law that would provide abortion pills at student health centers across California’s public university campuses.
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