This story is part of our monthly series, Campus Dispatch. Read the rest of the stories in the series here.
Since graduating from George Washington University last May, a movement on campus has grown stronger: a student-led campaign demanding the university administration provides access to medication abortion on campus. The students asked the question: What responsibility do universities have for providing access to medical abortion to their student bodies?
The answer is clear — a significant amount.
Medical abortion usually refers to a two-stage regimen of the drugs misoprostol and mifepristone, although sometimes it may be misoprostol alone. It is a safe and effective method of terminating the pregnancy he explains more than half of abortion in the US. Unprecedented legal attacks on mifepristone as well as inpatient care across the country make the issue of access even more urgent. In fact, the Supreme Court will hear a case on Tuesday that could overturn decades of access.
University health centers are uniquely positioned to reshape the abortion access landscape across the country. Many student health programs cover abortion to some extent, and because people don’t always attend college locally, any student health center would undoubtedly serve people from states where abortion is strictly restricted or prohibited.
After June 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, which was overturned operatively Roe v. Wade, states with few or no restrictions on abortion have an even greater responsibility to increase access to abortion, and that duty extends to university health centers. As one increasing number of people forced to cross state lines to get abortion care, access points are overwhelmed, with some having week-long waiting lists. If universities could ease the burden on clinics by providing abortion pills, more people could have access to abortion both within a given state and outside of it.
Universities, we look to you to step up and ensure your students have access to the health care they need.
This is not a theoretical idea — beyond the last year, the campuses of Barnard College, the University of California, and California State University agreed to provide their students with abortion pills. The movement has are affected the access landscape in their respective states.
In my role at Response As an educator and grassroots organizer who provides information about self-administered abortion, I have noticed that students actively seek guidance about this protocol. It is obvious that medical abortions are happening on college campuses, even in the absence of university support. While students manage their abortions independently, universities have the resources to provide them with safety, support and aftercare if they need it. This should be an easy way for them to better support their students.
There is more demand for abortion access on college campuses than most university administrations recognize. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2019 figures, people in their 20s account for more than half of the people who get abortions in the United States. A sizable number of this population is concentrated on college campuses, meaning that universities that provide abortion medication would benefit the group most in need of this health care.
College students also face unique barriers to accessing abortion care that universities can often overlook. For many students, this is their first time navigating the health care system and they rely heavily on their universities for guidance. While university health centers offer referrals to abortion clinics, students often encounter increased waiting time or risk of increased stigma in these clinics due to their lack of experience navigating the health care system. Students may be ill-equipped to maneuver their city’s public transportation, and aligning appointment times with class schedules can be difficult, particularly in areas where nearby clinics are closed on weekends. In addition, medication abortions are often involved two doctor’s appointmentspotentially causing affected students to lose more valuable classroom time.
The challenge of paying for medical abortion adds another layer of complexity, especially for students enrolled in their school’s health insurance plans. Despite the availability of sliding scale fees, the average cost for a medication abortion at Planned Parenthood, for example, it’s $580, but can go as high as $800. For many who are college-age—especially lower-income students—this price is a significant barrier to access.
University health centers that offer medical abortion prescriptions are a unique solution to these challenges. They can ensure that students receive consistent care in their community, reduce pressure on local clinics, and protect students from anti-abortion misinformation. In the absence of resources provided by the institution, students run the risk of ending up in the hands of “crisis pregnancy centers” or bogus anti-abortion clinics, many of which they specifically target students and collectively spend millions in misleading ads across multiple platforms to lure abortion seekers. The threat posed by these fake clinics cannot be understated: they prey on unwitting pregnant women seeking reproductive health care who may be unable to distinguish legitimate medical practices from ideologically motivated anti-abortion organizations.
Most university health centers already provide some reproductive health care on campus — but they have the potential to do much more. Prescribing medical abortion without ultrasound is a safe and acceptable practice in many states and would not pose a significant burden to many universities (financial or otherwise), while the positive impact is clear and supported by data.
As Maddy Niziolek and Stephanie Spector, student activists at George Washington University, told me: Students are often isolated from “reliable abortion information, financial resources and basic health care,” and their universities have the resources to fill that gap . When the number of people traveling out of state for an abortion has doubled from his overthrow Roe v. Wade, there just needs to be more access points. Universities, we look to you to step up and ensure your students have access to the health care they need.
