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Barnard College will give students access to medication abortion next year, officials at the private women’s institute announced on Thursday.
In the aftermath of Roe V. Wade, faculty from the New York City based college want to ensure students have access to abortion health services “in the event that there is a barrier to access” in the future.
“Barnard applies a reproductive justice and gender-affirming framework to all of its student health and well-being services, and particularly to reproductive healthcare,” Marina Catallozzi, Barnard’s chief health officer, and Leslie Grinage, the dean of the college, said in a statement following the announcement. “In the post-Roe context, we are bolstering these services.”
Medication abortion will be available to students by fall 2023, officials said. Campus providers will also be “prepared and trained in the provision of medication abortion.”
More schools will offer abortion services in the next year
Since Roe was overturned in June, several states have banned all forms of abortion including the pill. Restrictions swiftly went into effect in states such as Arkansas, Texas, and Missouri, where a individual can now face up to 15 years in prison for performing an abortion. Since the law’s erasure, several schools, employers and institutions have been working fast to provide abortion access.
Similar to Barnard, in January 2023, the University of California and California State University campuses will also offer medication abortion to students on campus, NPR reported. Lawmakers in Massachusetts recently passed a bill that will now give public colleges and universities the green light to create “medication abortion readiness plans” for students that are due in November 2023, CBS noted.
As MADAMENOIRE previously reported, in May, Starbucks announced that it would cover transportation costs for employees who needed to travel to obtain an abortion if the procedure was banned in their state. The company said the critical initiative would be offered through their employee’s existing medical insurance.
In the months following Roe’s historic overturning, abortion medication has become scarce. The pill previously served as a loophole for individuals living in abortion banned states because they could simply order the medication by mail and take the medication out of state. But lawmakers are working fast to stop access all together. In Texas, officials banned patients from receiving the pill by mail, forcing many to undergo extreme testing and seek a prescription through a doctor. Pro-abortion activists condemned the move, arguing that women should have the right to make their own reproductive decisions.
The FDA has dropped some restrictions on abortion meds
Before the stringent ban went into effect, in 2021 the Food and Drug Administration relaxed some of the tight restrictions placed on one abortion pill called mifepristone, which can end a pregnancy that is less than 10 weeks along. Patients were initially required to pick up the medication at a certified hospital or clinic, but during the pandemic, the Biden Administration changed the protocol, allowing woman to receive the pill by mail.
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