By Dave Andrusko
SB 24, a bill that would force student health centers at all University of California and California State University campuses to offer abortifacient drugs beginning in January 1, 2023 passed the Senate Health Committee Wednesday on a vote of 7-3.
According to Jenni Fink, “There are 10 campuses within the University of California system and an additional 23 comprise the California State University system.”
Introduced last December by pro-abortion state Senator Connie Leyva, Senate Bill 24 is her latest attempt to ensure that so-called medication abortions are available through the first ten weeks of pregnancy.
“SB 24 is an important step toward ensuring the right to abortion is available to all Californians and that our college students don’t face unnecessary barriers,” Sen. Leyva said in a statement that appeared on her website
Her previous bill (SB 320) was vetoed by pro-abortion former Governor Jerry Brown in late 2018. His reasons had nothing to do with the ethics of abortion but rather that there was no need.
“According to a study sponsored by supporters of this legislation, the average distance to abortion providers in campus communities varies from five to seven miles, not an unreasonable distance,” Brown wrote in the veto letter. “Because the services required by this bill are widely available off-campus, this bill is not necessary.”
Brown’s successor, Gavin Newsom, has previously said he would sign such a bill.
Funding, particularly start-up costs, was always an issue but proponents have worked around it.
“The College Student Health Center Sexual and Reproductive Health Preparation Fund would provide $200,000 grants to each public university student health center, as established in the bill,” Fink wrote. “The grant’s intention is to cover the costs of medication abortion readiness and permits for several expenses, including the purchase of equipment, facility and security upgrades and training staff members.”
Opponents have seen the proposal in a far different light. Their instinct is not to take the child’s life but to help the mother navigate an unplanned pregnancy at the same time she is attending school. According to the Daily Titan, the student newspaper at California State University, Fullerton, Cameron Brewer, who was then the new president of Students for Life,
opposes the bill. Brewer said that any campus health resources should be used to help women who are pregnant, need help with child care and give information about adoption.
“It’s (the pill) more traumatic for women. It’s way easier to access without thinking about it, and the side effects can be more severe. There should be more instruction on the adoption process,” said Brewer.
Naturally, in all the promotion for chemical abortifacients at student health centers not a syllable about the thousands of complications and even deaths.
The latest FDA latest update tells us that as of December 31, 2017, the deaths of at least 22 women have been associated with the use of the two-drug abortion technique.
Student health centers at public universities in California “do not offer abortions of any kind, instead referring women to off-campus clinics,” according to Melody Gutierrez of the San Francisco Chronicle.
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