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NICK EICHER, HOST: Up next: expanding abortion-pill access on California college campuses.

California was the first state to require public universities to provide chemical abortion drugs through student health centers. Now lawmakers want to extend that mandate to dozens of community colleges.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Pro-lifers say the policy sends students a clear message: abortion is part of campus healthcare, while support for pregnant students remains more difficult to find. WORLD’s Lauren Canterberry reports.

LAUREN CANTERBERRY: Christian Alan was a senior at UCLA in the fall of 2022 when voters approved a proposal to make abortion a right under California’s state constitution.

CHRISTIAN ALAN: What followed after it passed was that in the UC Ship insurance, which is the insurance for all the UC system, the public school system for universities in California, they began to include abortion in their insurance.

A few months later, a law took effect requiring all 32 public universities in the state to begin stocking abortion pills.

ALAN: They made it known that if you needed to have an abortion covered, that was now covered.

California was the first state to pass a measure mandating university health systems provide chemical abortion drugs. Massachusetts, New York, and Illinois have since followed suit.

Now, California lawmakers want to extend the requirement to include 92 community colleges that have a student health center. Last year those schools enrolled about 2 million students.

California Right to Life outreach director Mary Rose Short says the move could strengthen the pro-abortion narrative.

MARY ROSE SHORT: Students think abortion is essential for student success and that you can’t be a parent and a successful student. If they know they are available on campus, it just plays into that idea of this is a critical part of being a student.

California has approximately 175 abortion facilities - the most of any state. Between that and mail-order pills, students already have access to the dangerous drugs.

SHORT: You would have to be at a pretty remote campus to not have same day or next day access to abortion.

While the measure has garnered support from pro-abortion lawmakers, some community college officials have raised concerns. Even those that are not pro-life.

The chief executive officers and health services association for community colleges both oppose the measure. They say campus health centers are not equipped to prescribe any medication or screen for complications.

According to one review published by the Ethics and Public Policy Center, up to one in ten women experience a serious adverse event after taking the abortion drug regimen. That can include hemorrhage, incomplete abortion, and infection.

Karen Pennington is the Colorado director for Concerned Women for America.

KAREN PENNINGTON: These clinics are healthcare clinics but they do not have ultrasound. They do not have a physician on staff.

Without an ultrasound, it is impossible to accurately determine how old an unborn baby is and if the woman is experiencing an ectopic pregnancy. Both cases would make taking abortion pills even more dangerous and ineffective.

PENNINGTON: We’ve removed any safeguards to protect women through these bills. It sends one strong message to young women – your only option if you get pregnant is abortion because that’s all we’ve got to offer.

Many pro-lifers say universities required to provide abortion drugs should also be required to provide clear information about alternatives.

Back in California, Christian Alan is trying to connect women with those support systems. He is now a regional coordinator for Students for Life and uses the group’s Standing With You platform to inform women about their options.

ALAN: The edge that Planned Parenthood had was that it’s accessible and it’s convenient. Standing With You does the same thing.

The virtual directory allows a woman to see local pregnancy centers, maternity homes, adoption agencies, and other resources in her area.

ALAN: If in those small moments we can convince someone to not abort and to choose life, and continue convincing them every time, then we see an extinction of abortion and we see a culture of life.

As more states eye college campuses for abortion pill distribution, pro-lifers say they will continue making sure young women know that they have other options.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Lauren Canterberry.

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