The California Senate passed a bill Monday that would encourage more young, vulnerable college students to abort their unborn babies.
If it becomes law, California would be the first state to force public universities to provide abortions to students.
State Senate Bill 320, sponsored by Sen. Connie Leyva, a Democrat, would require California public universities and community colleges to provide abortions drugs up to 10 weeks of pregnancy at their student health centers. It also would require the taxpayer-funded schools to cover the cost of the abortions in their student health insurance plans. The pro-abortion mandate would go into effect in 2020.
“I firmly believe that all students should be able to decide what to do with their own bodies and when to factor a family into their life,” Leyva said. “After all, women do not lose the constitutional right to end a pregnancy simply because they are a college student.”
However, college-age women already are the age group most likely to have abortions, and campuses tend not to be friendly toward pregnant and parenting students. Leyva’s bill could push more young women to abort their unborn babies when what they really is better pregnancy and parenting support.
Officials with the California State Universities expressed concerns about the bill, according to the AP.
“Currently our CSU health centers offer basic health services, however, the administration of medications still requires a level of expertise that our health center staff may not have,” spokeswoman Toni Molle said.
Here’s more from the report:
None of the 34 University of California or California State University campuses currently offer abortion services at their health centers, instead referring students to outside providers. A group of private donors, some of them anonymous, plan to pay for up to $20 million in startup costs, including ultrasound equipment and training for both medical and billing staff.
The bill, SB320, still needs Assembly approval.
Pro-life advocates said the bill is destructive and deadly.
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“Not only will this bill destroy the lives of innocent children, but the chemical abortion medication being mandated has a notorious reputation for being very painful and traumatic,” said California Family Council CEO Jonathan Keller, previously. “These drugs are known for not just causing physical pain to the mother, but psychological anguish that could last a lifetime.”
Leyva claimed the bill is necessary to help college students who may have to travel off campus to have an abortion or pay for it themselves.
“If a UC, CSU or community college already has a student health center, it makes sense that they provide this health care service within that facility so that students do not have to travel many miles away from their work and school commitments in order to [have an abortion],” Leyva said.
One abortion supporter even claimed the abortion drugs are safer than taking Tylenol.
However, abortion drugs can be very dangerous and even deadly to women as well as their unborn babies. The drugs are responsible for the deaths of dozens of women worldwide, and they have injured at least 1,100 women in the United States, according to 2006 figures from the FDA. A Planned Parenthood study admits at least one woman is seriously injured from the abortion pills daily.
Californians for Life, a coalition of pro-life groups in California, is urging pro-lifers to call their legislators.
“These pills will hurt our daughters and end the lives of our grandchildren by forcefully inducing a miscarriage up to 10 weeks of pregnancy, with hemorrhaging and delivery of the baby into the dorm room toilet,” the pro-life group said in an email.
California laws already are some of the most hostile to unborn babies in the world. Late-term, elective abortions are legal, and girls under age 18 can get an abortion without a parent’s knowledge or permission.
The state forces taxpayers to fund abortions through Medi-Cal, and allows non-doctors to perform abortions. It also forces pro-life pregnancy centers to advertise free and low-cost state-funded abortions to clients, though pregnancy centers are challenging the law.
