Followers of the bill claim that it’s about expanding children’s health care.
Delaware immediately may visit a handful of states that require colleges to deliver abortions, perhaps as pro-life advocates words concerns about women’s and children’s health.
The state legislature approved the bill on June 30 that mandates that public universities with health facilities provide treatment for abortions, also known as pregnancy tablets, as well as emergency contraceptives. New York, Massachusetts, and California have identical rules.
Governor awaiting the name of Senate Bill 301 right then. John Carney, a pro-choice Democrat. If enacted, it is scheduled to go into effect July 1, 2025.
Delaware State University and the campuses of the University of Delaware are both covered by the costs.
The bill states that” the medication and contraception has become provided on-site, but consultation to provide them may be conducted by a company at the student health center, through telemedicine service, or by a company who is connected to a university-contracted outside agency.”
According to the act, campuses without health centers may be required to “provide data and referral services to students and maintain that the university’s health services website provides specified information relating to sexual services.”
The lead sponsor, Sen. Kyle Evans Gay, said the legislation protects college students ‘ reproductive health care.
Gay said in a statement on her Facebook page on July 1 that” we are expanding access to safe and reliable medical interventions for thousands of young adults.”
The College Fix twice emailed Gay asking if she supported the bill and the safety concerns that pro-life advocates raised, but she did not respond.
Meanwhile, pro-life leaders expressed a number of concerns about the legislation.
The availability of these pills is being pitched to college-age women as if they were children, unable to make decisions for themselves, according to Delaware Right to Life President Moira Sheridan in a recent email.
Women ca n’t be trusted to walk to the closest Planned Parenthood ( both of the two colleges that are in the bill’s proximity ), Sheridan continued,” Women ca n’t seem to find a way to an abortion clinic in the state of Delaware” ( both are within walking distance of Delaware State University and University of Delaware, the two colleges that are both affected by this bill ).
MORE: Researchers say medical residents avoiding pro-life states, but some OB-GYNs skeptical
The bill will end children’s lives and “abuse” taxpayers ‘ money, according to spokesperson Chanel Jacobs for Students for Life Action.
” Pushing chemical abortion pills and exposing women to injury, infertility, and death as well as potentially harming the environment is an abuse of every educational setting”, Jacobs said in an emailed statement.
Common side effects of the drug-based abortion method include nausea, weakness, fever, chills, vomiting, headache, diarrhea and dizziness, according to the FDA. The most severe side effects include infection and undetected ectopic pregnancy, which can be life-threatening.
Medication abortion is a two-step process “involving taking two medications—mifepristone and misoprostol—at specific times over a couple of days”. The method is used up to 10 weeks of pregnancy, according to Yale Medicine.
The first pill, mifepristone, makes the womb hostile to the embryo or fetus and causes its death. This is accomplished by preventing the hormone progesterone from being produced. The second, misoprostol, is taken between 24 and 48 hours later and induces contractions to expel the dead embryo.
Sheridan of Delaware Right to Life questioned the ability of colleges to deal with student abortion complications.
University health centers are unable to deal with the severe side effects and emergencies brought on by the pill, such as excessive bleeding and pain. Nor can they determine if the baby has actually been expelled and the abortion completed, often a second, surgical abortion is required”.
According to Jacobs from Students for Life Action, abortions do not fit into the higher education’s purpose.
Colleges and universities are there to train future leaders, Jacobs said,” not to end their lives or even to end their lives through the distribution of deadly pills.”
According to the Guttmacher Institute, a research institute that supports abortion, 63 percent of all abortions were performed on medication in 2023.
The Fix also contacted several co-sponsors of the bill: Sens. Kyra Hoffner, Sarah McBride, David Sokola, and Reps. Paul Baumbach, Eric Morrison, and DeShanna Neal, by email three times in the past two weeks. None responded to requests for comment.
MORE: New California law results in 400 abortions on campus
IMAGE: Maria Oswalt/ Unsplash
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