Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a piece of legislation late last month that would have given college women more family planning options.
The bill, SB320, proposed that every University of California and California State University campus health center be required to provide pills that can be taken within 10 weeks of conception to terminate a pregnancy.
The pills, mifepristone and misoprostol, work together to stop an embryo from implanting in the uterus. After stopping implantation, the uterus contracts, expelling the embryo from the body.
The bill proposed private funding of at least $9.6 million to be given to the health centers, about $200,000 to each school, specifically for providing abortion pills to their students by Jan. 1, 2022.
In his veto message, Gov. Brown wrote: “Because the services required by this bill are widely available off-campus, this bill is not necessary.”
The Problem
When the bill’s author, Connie Leyva, D-Chino, introduced the bill, she said that “a woman should always have the right to decide when she incorporates a family into her life.”
According to the Senate Floor Analyses, Leyva understood that there are quite a few obstacles in the way of going to an off-campus clinic to receive an abortion and wanted to make sure that abortion was an accessible option for all public university students.
Background
According to the Daily Bruin campus newspaper, students at UC-Berkeley recognized the need for an on-campus option for abortions. These students phone-banked, lobbied and started collecting signatures supporting of the legislation.
Many abortion clinics are only open during the week, when students are in class. If a woman decided she wanted to get an abortion, she would need to move around her schedule, which is often very difficult to do.
In more densely populated areas, students who need to use public transportation would also face financial obstacles to getting an abortion.
Attempt at Solution
According to her news release, Sen. Leyva wanted to make sure that college women had access to prompt abortion care, as is their constitutional right.
With many critical health care protection and services being threatened with reduction by the Trump Administration, she said she believes legislation was essential to protect the reproductive rights of Californians.
Leyva worked with organizations such as ACCESS Women’s Health Justice, ACT for Women and Girls, California Latinas for Reproductive Justice, Students United for Reproductive Justice at UC Berkeley and Women’s Policy Institute to help write the bill.
End Result
Some opponents of the bill included organizations such as the California Family Council, Students for Life of America and Californians for Life.
“SB-320 pushed abortion at the expense of student safety and student dollars,” said Anna Bakh, Northern California regional coordinator for Students for Life of America.
“RU-486, the chemical abortion procedure, not only ends the life of pre-born children up to the tenth week of pregnancy, but it also endangers the lives of young women, who are sent home alone with pills to induce labor in their dorm rooms and shared bathrooms, with no medical supervision or support,” she said.
Many women’s rights and pro-choice organizations such as the American Association of University Women of California and Essential Access Health supported the bill.
SB320 passed the final vote in Senate on Aug. 30, 52-25. Mainly male Republicans were opposed.
-- Courtney Chapman