Pro-Life Advocates Slam California Bill That Would Force Universities to Offer Abortion Option to Students
Pro-life advocates are up in arms against a bill filed at the California Senate that would force public universities to dispense the abortion pill at their student health centers and provide abortion coverage in student health plans.
Senate Bill 320 seeks to "require campuses of the California State University and the California Community Colleges that operate on-campus health centers to offer abortion by medication techniques and scientifically accurate abortion counseling services to their students."
"The bill would also require, as a condition for the use of state funds for purposes of operating on-campus health centers, each campus of the University of California that has an on-campus health center to offer abortion by medication techniques and scientifically accurate abortion counseling services to its students," it says.
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The abortion pill referred in the bill is RU-486, which is used for abortions early in pregnancy, according to LifeSite News.
The National Right to Life says RU-486, or mifepristone, is actually not a contraceptive. "Used at 5 to 7 weeks, RU 486 kills an unborn baby whose heart has already begun to beat. This is the only purpose for which the sponsor ever sought U.S. government approval," it says.
Mifepristone is used with another abortion drug, misoprostol. According to Lifesite News, a mother takes mifepristone and then misoprostol over several days. "Mifepristone starves the pre-born baby of nutrients and softens and breaks down the uterine lining. Misoprostol ensures the tiny human is expelled from the uterus, which the woman will then have to dispose of," it says.
The bill pending in the California Senate argues that universities should be forced to provide abortion pills to their students because students seeking abortion "face prohibitively expensive travel ... to a clinic that may be hours from their campus, out of their city, county, or even geographic region."
"These financial and time burdens negatively impact academic performance and mental health," the bill states.
Margaret Caligaris, president of Students for Life at California Polytechnic State University, said the bill is "insulting to women everywhere."
"This bill essentially is saying that women who find themselves in crisis pregnancies cannot be successful in school and be a mother," she told LifeSite News.
For her part, Deanna Wallace of Americans United for Life said the bill "is just another attempt to force taxpayers to subsidize the abortion industry."
She said she's "disturbed by the idea of a student health center giving out potentially dangerous medications such as RU-486. Student health centers are not equipped to deal with the numerous complications that can arise, and they would be putting their own students at risk."
