NEWS: U.S.
Barnard College to provide abortion pills to students next year

Barnard Col­lege, a pri­vate wom­en’s col­lege in New York, announced Thurs­day that it will give stu­dents access to abor­tion drugs start­ing next year.

The move comes in direct response to the Supreme Court’s rul­ing in June over­turn­ing the land­mark Roe v. Wade deci­sion that pro­vid­ed a con­sti­tu­tion­al guar­an­tee of abor­tion rights.

This momen­tous deci­sion left it up to the states to decide, with more than a dozen states out­right ban­ning abor­tion procedures.

The deci­sion to pro­vide abor­tion pills on cam­pus “just in case access is com­pro­mised for any rea­son in the future,” said Barnard Dean Leslie Greenage and Chief Health Offi­cer Dr. Mari­na Cat­alodge said in a state­ment, adding that providers on cam­pus “will be pre­pared and trained in pro­vid­ing med­ical abor­tion by the fall of 2023.”

The school said that repro­duc­tive health ser­vices are cur­rent­ly avail­able to stu­dents in New York, but access will be strength­ened on cam­pus anyway.

“His­to­ry and research strong­ly sug­gest that the Supreme Court’s deci­sion to crush the con­sti­tu­tion­al right to legal abor­tion would have seri­ous neg­a­tive con­se­quences for wom­en’s futures,” the school said. Over­turn­ing Roe v. Wade in 50 years will like­ly result in low­er col­lege enroll­ment rates, low­er grad­u­a­tion rates, and dis­rupt­ed employ­ment trajectories.”

Peo­ple of col­or and those with low­er incomes are expect­ed to be dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly harmed. ”

Oth­er agen­cies have announced sim­i­lar mea­sures to pro­tect access to abor­tion in the post-Roe era.

In Cal­i­for­nia, a state law signed in 2019 will require state pub­lic uni­ver­si­ties to pro­vide abor­tion pills start­ing next year.

In Mass­a­chu­setts, law­mak­ers passed a bill over the sum­mer requir­ing pub­lic uni­ver­si­ties to cre­ate drug abor­tion readi­ness plans for their stu­dents and have them ready by Novem­ber 2023.

Mean­while, in Ida­ho, where a ban on abor­tion trig­gers was par­tial­ly enact­ed on August 25 despite ongo­ing law­suits, the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ida­ho last month ordered its staff not to offer repro­duc­tive health coun­sel­ing, includ­ing abortions.

warned them or report­ed that they could lose their jobs or face crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion under this law.