California Catholic Conference (CCC) is urging lawmakers to reject a bill that would provide funding for abortions at all of California’s state colleges. SB 320, sponsored by State Senator Connie Leyva (D-Chino) aims to create a Medication Abortion Implementation Advisory Council to handle money from public and private sources, earmarked for abortion services on college campuses.
SB 320 would require California State University (CSU) and University of California (UC) to provide abortion-inducing medications at their campus health centers. The schools would also have to offer abortion counseling services to all students. The bill seeks to impose these requirements as a condition of the state funding that the universities receive.
Currently, CSU and UC are able to offer health insurance plans to their students, but on-campus abortion medications are not available. Some UC students are able to access abortion services through their insurance plans, but they must go off campus to receive these services.
“The women who most often become pregnant on campus are not looking for greater abortion access but for help parenting as students,” kathleen-domingo, director of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ Office of Life, Justice and Peace, told Angelus News. Domingo pointed out more than a quarter of college students today are parents.
“The state of California should have no role in encouraging abortions in our public post-secondary educational institutions nor should it punish students and campuses for non-compliance by threatening to reduce or eliminate funding for other important women’s health services,” the CCC says. “The bill appears to make the state one-sided on an issue of moral significance and controversy. The state should also be promoting life-affirming clinics — most of which provide free services — so that women in need have access to all the choices available.”
“It is not more abortion that California needs,” Domingo said, “but a greater response to the changing student demographic through supportive resources aimed at helping pregnant and parenting students succeed.”
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