On Friday, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law that will provide public college students with abortion medication at campus health centers. This law will take affect in 2023.
With this law, all 34 campuses of the University of California and California State University systems will be required to provide this service for students.These state schools will offer a nonsurgical and noninvasive medical abortion that will consist of taking two prescription pills during the first ten weeks of pregnancy to induce a miscarriage; this medication is mifepristone and misoprostol. These pills will be at no cost for students.
According to the Los Angeles Times, this bill will rely on private donations, not state dollars, to pay for these services to be accessible for students on public college campuses. The California government hopes to raise $10 million to have these medications available. In my opinion, this is interesting since this concludes that no government money will be going toward the medication.
In the future, though it is a Catholic university, I feel that St. John’s should consider offering this service in the campus health center in DaSilva Residence Hall. This service potentially being offered at St. John’s would make many women feel comfortable, safe, and noticed. There are significant challenges, one being St. John’s is a private school whereas the California schools are public. And with the Catholic church publicly anti-abortion, St. John’s would also therefore be paving the way for many other religious campuses, such as Seton Hall, to be caring towards the students who are impregnated via rape on a college campus.
As a woman, I believe the choice that California made is significant and brave. This decision shows hope for many women, especially those who live in places where abortion has never been accepted. Going to college and being raised in two states that are extremely supportive of women’s rights is something I am truly thankful for. I hope that this decision will influence other states to think of the same type of legislature in order to keep women protected on college campuses, public or private.
Since the iconic Supreme Court case regarding abortion, Roe v. Wade in 1973, abortion has been a hot topic in the government and among Americans. Being such a controversial decision, many who consider themselves pro-life are extremely against this idea that abortion medication should be administered to California college students on campuses in four years.
Due to Roe v. Wade, women have a right that they never believed they would have before. Since women have the right to choose what is done with their bodies, this law paves the way for many more states to follow its footsteps in protecting women on college campuses, hopefully.
The fight for women’s and reproductive rights is, unfortunately, a fight that will always have to be fought. As America is split down the middle regarding abortion, pro-choice Americans have to stand up for all women whose voices can never be heard.
