Pro-life activists denounce California law requiring colleges to offer abortion pills on campus
Pro-life activists have denounced a new California law mandating that all public universities offer abortion pills on campus by the year 2023.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 24 into law last Friday, which will send funds to student health centers at public universities for providing abortion-inducing drugs on campus.
“CA is now the first state to require public universities to offer abortion pills on campus,” Newsom wrote on Twitter Sunday. “While other states have attempted to roll back a woman's right to maintain control over her own body, California continues to expand reproductive freedom across our state.”
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Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins criticized the new law, telling the Fox News program “Fox & Friends” that the measure turns state universities into abortion providers.
“This is a first-in-the-nation law that is going to fundamentally alter what is happening at college campus health centers. Every state college campus in California will now be turned into an abortion facility,” Hawkins said.
“The conscience rights of health care workers on these college campuses will be violated because now instead of serving patients to help them promote good, healthy decisions, they’re now going to be working at an abortion facility.”
Hawkins explained to Fox that they are willing to give legal aid to any university healthcare worker who objects to providing abortions to students.
Lila Rose, founder and president of the pro-life group Live Action, took to her Twitter account to criticize Newsom for signing SB 24 into law.
“Instead of empowering women with life-affirming options, CA is telling young women they aren’t strong enough to succeed without killing their children,” she tweeted.
In October 2018, then Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a similar bill known as the “College Student Right to Access Act,” arguing that it was “not necessary” since such services were “widely available off-campus.”
"Access to reproductive health services, including abortion, is a long-protected right in California," Brown said in his veto notice last year.
"According to a study sponsored by supporters of this legislation, the average distance to abortion providers in campus communities varies from 5 to 7 miles, not an unreasonable distance."
