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How Medication Abortion Information Is Changing At California's Public Universities
Ala Elkambaei, Social Justice Leader, at the Womxn's Resource Center at Cal Poly Pomona.
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Julie Leopo
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LAist
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In January, LAist published an investigation into the uneven, and often nonexistent promotion that California’s public universities put into notifying students about their right to access medication abortions.
In the nearly two months since, however, several universities have taken action to improve transparency.
Since that time the following campuses have added wording on their web sites about medication abortion availability: CSU Long Beach, UC Santa Cruz, CSU Channel Islands, CSU San Bernardino, Sacramento State, Sonoma State.
Here's what CSU Long Beach added, for example:
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SHS [Student Health Center] offers medication abortion at a very low cost in the clinic. Our caring clinicians provide confidential services, including a medical exam, a home care kit, and the medications needed for an abortion. All instructions will be provided to the patient.
And CSU Channel Islands added to their list of services:
Family planning, including birth control, Pap smears, counseling on and prescriptions for most contraceptive methods, referrals for medication abortion services, and FREE condoms.
Administrators in the Cal State chancellor’s office are also working on template language so all campuses provide the same information for students.
Learn more
We’ve also expanded on our initial reporting. Today, LAist Investigates launches the podcast “The Unknown Mandate: Accessing Medication Abortion at California Universities.” The podcast dives further into the background work that led to our story about faulty promotion of medication abortion at California public universities.
After the initial story, LAist published follow-up stories about:
- How student activists fill in campus silence
- California’s use of its abortion pill stockpile
- How peer health advocates could be a model for abortion pill outreach.
Another story to come: Why the cost of medication abortions vary from campus to campus.
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