On Sept. 14, California lawmakers passed a bill that requires public universities to offer the abortion pill for students at on-campus health centers and clinics. According to the Sacramento Bee, the state Senate approved the bill on a 28-11 vote, and the next step is for Gov. Gavin Newsom to decide if he will sign it into law within the next month. If the bill is passed by Newsom, it will take effect at universities in January of 2023. 

According to the Guttmacher Institute’s Unintended Pregnancy in the U.S. study, “the unintended pregnancy rate is significantly higher in the U.S. than in many other developed countries.” In 2011, there were 45 unintended pregnancies for every 1,000 women aged 15-44 in the U.S., and 42% of those unintended pregnancies (excluding miscarriages), ended in abortion. 

“Publicly funded family services help women avoid pregnancies they do not want, and plan pregnancies they do want. In 2014, these services helped women avoid two million unintended pregnancies, which would likely have resulted in 900,000 births and nearly 700,000 abortions.” 

Because of anti-abortion politicians in the Trump administration and in Congress, legal and safe aobrtions offered at public health care programs such as Planned Parenthood are being defunded in certain clinics across the nation. 

Defunding Planned Parenthood only proved that the Trump administration does not believe in the equal individual rights of every human, and only furthers their beliefs that women do not have the right to make choices for their own body.

Bringing the abortion pill to universities can help many students make a safe decision and seek professional help at a clinic. Young women in their college years are practicing sex, and 17 out of 1000 of them experience unwanted pregnancy. 

The “abortion pill” is known as mifepristone and misoprostol; mifepristone stops the pregnancy from growing, and misoprostol empties the uterus. Women who take this medication will experience cramping and bleeding, but it subsides from 24-48 hours. Many people report that the medication feels like having an early miscarriage. But the abortion pill is more than 90% effective at terminating pregnancy and less invasive compared to other abortion procedures. 

Offering the abortion pill to students can help many women who are not ready to have children. It is common that most people don’t want children because of student debt, how expensive the cost of living is today, and climate change. 

State Sen. Connie Leyva stated that “access to abortion drugs at campus health clinics would prevent students from having to choose between delaying important medical care or having to travel long distances or miss classes or work.”  

Many students provide for themselves, and not everyone has health insurance or access to clinics that can offer the abortion pill. By having this option ready on campus, women have an option to turn to in the case of an unintended pregnancy.  This provides students with the comfort that their right to choose is protected by their university. 

We are facing an administration that is attempting to roll back on women’s health care and reproductive health care, and California is setting the example that every individual, especially women, have the right to choose and have access to health care. 

It is scary for women. today because it feels like our basic reproductive rights are being stripped away. Not only is California setting an example, but it gives hope to women that someone is still fighting alongside them and their rights to choose for themselves.