A new California law that will force colleges to provide abortions on campus also poses a threat to campus health workers.
Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, said nurses and other medical workers who believe killing an unborn baby is wrong could be forced to help with abortions on campus under the new law.
“This is a first-in-the-nation law that is going to fundamentally alter what is happening at college campus health centers. Every state college campus in California will now be turned into an abortion facility,” Hawkins told Fox & Friends.
The pro-abortion law, which Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Friday, mandates that all public colleges and universities provide abortion drugs for free to students up to 10 weeks of pregnancy starting Jan. 1, 2023. The bill promotes abortion instead of providing young women with pregnancy support and options.
Students for Life leaders have been among the most vocal opponents of the pro-abortion law. Hawkins said campus health centers are “not equipped to deal with” emergency complications that may result from an abortion.
She said they are concerned about conscience protections for campus health workers as well. She encouraged workers to visit NoCampusAbortions.com for information about legal help.
“The conscience rights of health care workers on these college campuses will be violated because now instead of serving patients to help them promote good, healthy decisions, they’re now going to be working at an abortion facility,” Hawkins said.
Now that the bill has become law, 34 public college campuses in California will be forced to begin providing abortion drugs. According to the bill, lawmakers hope to collect about $10 million in private donations to help campuses set up their abortion practices. The state Commission on the Status of Women and Girls will be in charge of overseeing the funding.
However, a California Department of Finance report predicted that the donations will not be nearly enough to fund the program over the next several years. That means California taxpayers and students will be forced to pay for unborn babies to be aborted.
Former Gov. Jerry Brown, a pro-abortion Democrat, vetoed a very similar bill in 2018, saying the measure was “not necessary” because abortions already are easily accessible to college students. Brown pointed to a study from the supporters of the bill showing that the average distance to an abortion facility from campus was only about 5 miles.
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The University of California and the California State University systems also have expressed concerns about the bill. They said they are not prepared to handle the immense costs of providing abortions on campus, according to CBS 13 Sacramento. They pointed to the costs of ultrasound machines, staff training, increased liabilities and more.
But abortion activists insisted that women need easy access to abortion.
“It’s about access. Just because you have a constitutional right, if you don’t have access to that constitutional right, then it’s really no right at all,” state Sen. Connie Levya, a Democrat and lead sponsor of the bill, told Vice.
Hawkins said her organization is preparing to help students in other states that might consider the dangerous measure as well.
“Student fees underwrite the costs of the healthcare centers on campuses, which will now be required to distribute deadly chemical abortion pills. And healthcare professionals will also be forced to hand them out no matter the consequences to women’s health, but Students for Life of America will make sure to connect these victims of conscience right violations with legal help to stop the spread of a bad idea that is only good for propping up abortion vendors like Planned Parenthood,” Hawkins said.
“Women will lose, as the abortion lobby makes bank. This law includes funds that can go to Planned Parenthood for ‘consulting’ and new funds for ‘security’, allowing the nation’s number one abortion vendor to sit back and cash checks, enjoying the chaos of abortions taking place at schools without any of the risk,” she continued.
Under the law, it is estimated that 6,000 medication abortions (500 a month) could occur yearly at California public universities. The Senate Health Committee’s April 1, 2019 analysis included the statement of Democrat Connie Leyva, the main author of the law, that “up to 500 public university students currently must leave campus each month to access medication abortion.”
ACTION: Contact Gov. Gavin Newsom to complain.
