BUZZ
OB/GYN warns campus health centers aren’t ‘equipped to deal with complex reproductive health services that commonly require follow-up and surgical interventions’
Colorado House lawmakers recently advanced a pro-abortion bill that would require public and private colleges and universities to offer abortion pills on campus.
State House Bill 1335 passed the Education Committee in a party line vote of 8-5 last week, and currently awaits action by the full state House.
Rep. Lorena Garcia, one of the sponsors, described abortion as a “constitutional right” during a committee hearing April 16, KUNC reports.
Students “should be able to access the full breadth of their health care right there on campus when they’re already doing so for other things,” the Democrat lawmaker said. “Abortion care should not be something that someone has to go to some other clinic to access.”
Garcia’s bill would require campuses with an on-site pharmacy to provide abortion pills to students, and those without pharmacies to offer abortion pill prescriptions for students to fulfill off campus.
It would allow private higher education institutions to opt out on religious grounds if they believe abortions are morally wrong.
Abortion pills, sometimes referred to as a medication abortion, are actually two drugs used in combination to abort preborn babies up to about 10 weeks of pregnancy. The first drug blocks the pregnancy hormone progesterone, and the second induces contractions.
This week, an OB/GYN in the state presented strong objections to the measure in an op-ed at Colorado Politics.
Dr. Tom Perille, a member of American Association of Pro-Life OBGYNS and Democrats for Life of Colorado, noted that the legislation does not include conscience protections for campus employees.
“Mandating abortion provision transforms student health centers beyond their traditional scope. Student health centers are designed for primary care, preventative services and limited outpatient management of common diseases,” he wrote.
“They are not equipped to deal with complex reproductive health services that commonly require follow-up and surgical interventions,” Perille wrote. “During the hearing on HB26-1335, there was no testimony from those institutions directly affected by the measure.”
What’s more, he said the bill will open the door to coercion and abuse by partners and sex traffickers because it doesn’t require campuses to provide the abortion pills in-person.
The doctor raised concerns about the effects on students’ mental health, too. When young women take the abortion pills, they do so on their own without a doctor’s supervision. In the case of college students, many deliver their aborted babies in a dorm room toilet.
This “will exacerbate an already endemic mental health crisis amongst young adults,” Perille wrote, pointing to recent studies that suggest “a markedly increased incidence of hospitalization for psychiatric disorders (81% higher), substance abuse disorders (157% higher) and suicide attempts (116% higher) in women who had abortions.”
However, a University of Colorado Boulder student who testified in favor of the bill last week said the abortion provision would offer better support to students in need, according to KUNC.
“When I moved to Colorado three years ago, I had no loved ones within 1,000 miles of my new home,” Stephanie Schmidt said. “The Campus Health Center was crucial… it became my pharmacy, drugstore, and provider for all care because I was isolated from what is familiar.”
If the bill passes, Colorado would join California, Illinois, and several other states with similar campus abortion mandates.
MORE: Every public Illinois university must offer abortions. None provide prenatal care.
