California’s AB 2540: A Student Parent’s Perspective on Campus Abortion Expansion
In California, Assembly Bill 2540 is advancing to Governor Newsom’s desk. If signed, 92 California community colleges would be forced to dispense abortion pills or send students somewhere that does. It also requires community colleges to advertise abortion services to students. University of California and California State University campuses already provide abortions. AB 2540 would require them to further promote this service to students.
As both a California community college student and a student parent, I have some concerns. Read them below and watch this video for more information:
Abortion is already widely available in California
Abortion is already widely available in California. The state has 180 abortion clinics, legal mail-order pharmacy dispensing, and no restrictions on medication abortion. There is no shortage of abortion access here.
Safety Concerns
Campus health centers lack the capacity to dispense abortion pills or manage possible complications that can arise, such as retained tissue, hemorrhage, and sepsis. According to the FDA label for mifepristone, if adverse effects happen, then the student may need medical treatment, such as medication to control bleeding, blood pressure, or infection. They could also depend on surgical evacuation to complete the termination. In severe cases, the student may require hospitalization.
Financial Burden
Converting college health centers into abortion dispensing facilities will cost millions of dollars according to the Legislature’s own analysis. So far, no source of funding has been identified. Will this increase students’ tuition or health fees? Do we as taxpayers foot the bill? The financing appears to be an afterthought to such a massive and costly project.
What About Student Parents?
Supporters hail this bill as meeting a “resource gap” for community college students. Pregnant students seek abortion because of numerous hardships. They may be struggling with money. They may lack access to childcare or housing. Their partners or family may be pressuring them. Or they may worry about balancing school with parenthood. This bill does nothing to address those real underlying challenges. Instead, it frames abortion as the default response to an unexpected pregnancy. As abortion access increases, so too does the pressure to abort. 24% of post-abortive women report that their abortion was unwanted or coerced. 43% said it was inconsistent with their values.
In California, there are around 400,000 students who are also parenting. Despite this, support for student parents is lacking. At my campus, we have spent years trying to establish a student-parent engagement center with no luck. Parents who depend on childcare face a long waitlist and reduced options for courses. It’s not just my campus; over at UCLA, student parents and faculty learned last month that they are losing access to childcare. Student parents are now pleading for additional resources. The lack of support will inevitably force parents out of higher education.
Final Thoughts
If California were truly about choice, then I would see more efforts going into supporting other pregnancy options as well. Instead, this bill appears to be more political theater. Politicians in Sacramento pat themselves on the back for doing nothing, and prenatal children pay the price with their lives.
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