Abortion is a commonly needed health service for students attending California’s public universities, but obtaining an abortion is difficult for students. We project that there would be up to 519 medication abortions each month across the UC and CSU campuses if student health centers offered medication abortion. Young adults who want to obtain an abortion for an unplanned pregnancy need timely access to care to ensure continuation and completion of their college education.
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“Assessing Barriers to Medication Abortion among California’s Public University Students” presents findings regarding the barriers for students accessing medication abortion off campus, including travel distance, wait times, and financial constraints. This report also estimates the number of medication abortions each student health center could expect based on national abortion statistics adjusted for age-specific and California-specific abortion rates. The authors estimate that each UC campus, on average, would have 10-17 medication abortions per month and each CSU campus, on average, would have 9-15 medication abortions per month.