The University of California and Cal State school systems will soon start offering abortion pills under new state legislation.
According to reports, this new state law will be begin taking into effect on January 1 in these college campuses across the country.
This law is being carried out based on a law that passed back in 2019, which requires the student health centers at these schools to produce access to abortion pills.
This comes in the aftermath of the recent Supreme Court ruling of overturning Roe v. Wade, which could also help local clinics to better function as universities will be taking in abortion appointments when the law goes into effect.
Cathren Cohen, a reproductive rights expert at the UCLA Center on Reproductive Health, Law and Policy, says these changes will play a role in the number of people coming in from out of the state California.
“Because there is going to be this increase in people coming to California, all of the clinics are going to have, you know, additional demand and kind of struggle with capacity,” said Cathren Cohen. “While it’s not necessarily going to help all the people coming from out of state, it’s just generally going to increase the number of abortion providers.”
The UC Student Health Insurance Plan, a student admission requirement, will be able to cover medication abortion fees. However, it's a different path for students under the Cal State system. Students in state schools will have to pay the cost when receiving their abortion medications. Students over at Sacramento State University expect to pay somewhere around $60 to $80.
“There’s still a lot of areas where abortion access maybe is less than perfect or varies between different campuses and surrounding communities, or for different students within those communities,” said Alex Miles, chairperson of government relations for the Student Association of the University of California school system. “Reproductive health care access, in general, has to be central and fully accessible.”
