California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed a bill into law that requires public colleges and universities in the state to distribute abortion drugs, effectively turning the schools into first-trimester abortion clinics.
On Friday, Newsom signed SB 24, which was championed in the State Senate by Sen. Connie Leyva (D) as a reproductive rights issue.
“With Governor Newsom’s signature of SB 24, students at University of California and California State University campuses will finally be able to get medication abortion services at on-campus student health centers,” Leyva said in a statement, adding:
After three years of working to expand access to medication abortion at our public universities, I am thrilled that Governor Newsom rejected the misguided paths that other states have taken in limiting access to abortion care. Abortion is a protected right, and it is important that everyone—including college students—have access to that right, if they so choose. I thank the Governor and my legislative colleagues for upholding the right to choose and affirming the right of college students to access medication abortion on campuses here in California. I am also grateful for the many students and advocates that stood alongside me. Without them, today would not have been a reality.
Planned Parenthood celebrated the new law on Twitter:
Pro-life organizations, however, condemned the law that requires California universities and colleges to dispense the drugs that are taken by pregnant women during the first trimester of pregnancy:
Students for Life of America (SFLA) President Kristin Hawkins said Newsom’s act of signing the bill into law was “reckless.”
“Governor Newsom’s reckless support for a new abortion pill distribution scheme on California college and university campuses will put students’ lives at risk and put schools at risk of lawsuits as conscience rights are violated,” she said. “The Pro-Life Generation will not sit back and watch their college and university campuses be turned into Planned Parenthood’s new money making machine.”
SFLA actively opposed the legislation and testified against it during legislative hearings.
Hawkins said SFLA would be assisting students and healthcare workers in California whose conscience rights will be violated as they are forced to participate in abortions.
“Student fees underwrite the costs of the healthcare centers on campuses, which will now be required to distribute deadly chemical abortion pills,” she said. “And healthcare professionals will also be forced to hand them out no matter the consequences to women’s health.”
Hawkins continued how the new law is a windfall for Planned Parenthood:
Women will lose, as the abortion lobby makes bank. This law includes funds that can go to Planned Parenthood for “consulting” and new funds for “security,” allowing the nation’s number one abortion vendor to sit back and cash checks, enjoying the chaos of abortions taking place at schools without any of the risk.
Lila Rose, president of Live Action, called Newsom’s act a “travesty.”
She said the law “turns universities into abortion centers and perpetuates the lie that women need to kill their children in order to achieve their dreams and goals.”
Rose observed pill abortion is not as simple as it sounds. She said the procedure often entails “days of bleeding and clotting that can have serious complications for the mom.”
“Young women will be enduring this harmful abortion procedure in their college dorms and bathrooms without proper medical support,” she added. “This law will only increase the state’s abortion rate. The legislature that pushed this bill has done nothing to support pregnancy, parenting, or adoption which would open up authentic choices for women.”
Former Gov. Jerry Brown, also a Democrat, vetoed a similar measure last year, stating that forcing the distribution of abortion drugs on all public campuses was “not necessary.”
“Access to reproductive health services, including abortion, is a long-protected right in California,” Brown said in his veto message. “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.”
“Because the services required by this bill are widely available off-campus, this bill is not necessary,” he added.
A recently released study by researchers at Franciscan University of Steubenville uncovered potential significant biological and behavioral problems associated with drug-induced abortion.
The study investigated the effects of the abortion-inducing drugs mifepristone (RU-486) and misoprostol in rats in a controlled environment.
Based on the animal models, the researchers found significant and harmful behavior changes in pregnant rats that were given the abortion-inducing drugs, compared to rats that did not receive the drugs and those that received the drugs but were not pregnant.
Dr. Stephen Sammut, psychology professor at Franciscan who led the study, said the research is “breaking new ground” in the area of the mental health effects of abortion on women.
“In the animal model, we observed depression-like behaviors, and we saw anxiety-like behaviors,” he explained in a statement. “The biochemistry indicated potentially long-term effects.”
Dr. Donna Harrison, executive director of the American Association of Pro-life OB-GYNs, said the study “raises serious concerns about mental health effects of drug-induced abortions and the differences between spontaneous and induced abortion.”
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