Vote NO on SB 320
Creating Abortion Fund for Students Violates Choice, Undermines Students’ Needs
SB 320 would create a fund for UC and CSU schools to provide medical abortions in their student health centers. This bill is a symptom of privilege, rejecting the self-determination and bodily autonomy of college-aged women, especially women of color.
Creating a fund for abortion without ensuring adequate services for pregnant and parenting students serves to coerce students’ reproductive decisions. SB 320 would encourage unwanted abortion to pregnant students who are already marginalized and lack knowledge of their rights.
In community college, 53% of Black women, 40% of both Latino and Indigenous women, and 42% of mixed race women have children. 33% of low-income college students have children. At the same time, 76% of Latinos support significantly restricting abortion and foreign-born Latinos oppose abortion by a margin of nearly 2-to-1: 60% say it should be illegal in all or most cases.
The women who most often become pregnant on campus are those most opposed to abortion. They are looking not for greater abortion access, but for help parenting while pursuing an education.
The Center for Latino Reproductive Justice points out that focus on preventing young Latina pregnancies often ignores their lived experience, stigmatizing young parents as irresponsible by failing to prevent their pregnancies. But 50% of teen pregnancies to Latinas are planned.
Title IX is not just about athletics and sexual harassment. It also bans sex discrimination and requires gender equity in public education. Students deserve to know their Title IX rights to flexible study and exam schedules, excused absences for pregnancy or childbirth, ability to makeup work, access to lactation rooms, and supportive programs for housing on campus, healthcare, and childcare. Students often fear discrimination, loss of scholarships, mandated leave of absence, and harassment.
Two-thirds of the 34 four-year, public universities in CA do not even list pregnancy as a protected status under title IX on their websites. 91% offer childcare; however, national surveys show 9 of 10 centers maintain waiting lists, the average of which was 85% of enrollment size. 13% provide evening care, only 3% provide care on weekends, and less than half provide care for infants under one year of age.A third of these colleges list just one or no lactation rooms on campus.
Abortion access is ubiquitous in California from over 500 providers, referable by every student health center, and covered by Student Health Insurance Plans and MediCal. It is not more abortion that CA needs, but a clear understanding of the diversedemographic on our campuses and support and resources for our growing population of pregnant and parenting students. SB 320 underestimates the abilities of women to parent and pursue their educations at the same time.
“Young women who are pregnant should not have to put their educational aspirations on hold. …And schools should inform students and parents about the rights of pregnant and parenting students, and work to make the classroom flexible enough to accommodate the needs and nurture the educational aspirations of these resilient and determined young women. “ National Women’s Law Center