Universities are meant to be places of learning, not places of traumatizing medical procedures that will end a human life. California Senate Bill 320 will place an enormous burden on colleges as they will not only endure day-to-day educational operations, but will also be functioning as a clinic administering medical abortions.

 

 Universities will be assuming a heavy financial burden as well as serious liability risks by administering medical abortions on campus. The abortion pill cannot be used past ten weeks, meaning accurate assessment of pregnancy is needed. However, student health centers do not have the proper equipment to determine the size and development of a fetus or detect whether a pregnancy is ectopic or in utero, meaning universities will be required to extensively upgrade their facilities and could be held liable for improperly giving out abortion pills.

 

 Furthermore, by providing the abortion pill three days a week on campus, but not providing 24hr on-campus emergency services, we are putting women’s health at even greater risk. While abortion providers make the assertion that abortion by medication techniques is safe, there are extremely high risks. Side effects of abortion by medication include, but are not limited to: extreme cramping, heavy bleeding lasting up to two weeks, blood clots in uterus, hemorrhaging, passing clots larger than a lemon for more than 2 hours, and pregnancy tissue left in uterus which can lead to infection. If students do not have the means to drive off campus due to expensive travel or unreliable means of transportation, will they have the means to get to emergency services in time to save their life? Women could die from these side effects in their dormitory rooms. Emergency services can cause prohibitively expensive financial burdens to students, who often do not have reliable means of transportation to get to an emergency facility. This places an even greater burden of liability on university officials.

 

The risks are too great. Abortion by medication techniques is not health care, as it endangers the physical and mental health of the woman in addition to ending the life of her child. There is no prohibition of using taxpayer dollars or student fees to fund this bill. This money should not be used to fund a procedure that endangers the life of women and pushes extreme burdens on Universities.  

For these reasons, we, the undersigned, petition the

California State Assembly to vote “No” on SB-320.