Supporters of the bill say it’s about expanding women’s health care
Delaware soon may join a handful of states that require colleges to provide abortions, even as pro-life advocates voice concerns about women’s and children’s safety.
The state legislature passed the bill on June 30, requiring public universities with health centers to offer medication abortions, also known as abortion pills, as well as emergency contraception. New York, Massachusetts, and California have similar laws.
Senate Bill 301 now awaits the signature of Gov. John Carney, a pro-choice Democrat. If enacted, it is scheduled to go into effect July 1, 2025.
The bill applies to Delaware State University and the University of Delaware campuses.
“The medication and contraception must be provided on-site, but consultation to provide them may be performed by a provider at the student health center, through telehealth services, or by a provider who is associated with a university-contracted external agency,” the bill states.
Campuses that do not have health centers will be required to “provide information and referral services to students and ensure that the university’s health services website provides specified information relating to reproductive services,” according to the bill.
The lead sponsor, Sen. Kyle Evans Gay, said the legislation protects college students’ reproductive health care.
“With these bills, we are expanding access to safe and reliable medical interventions for thousands of young adults,” Gay said in a statement on her Facebook page July 1.
The College Fix contacted Gay twice by email, asking about her support for the bill and the safety concerns voiced by pro-life advocates, but she did not respond.
Meanwhile, pro-life leaders expressed a number of concerns about the legislation.
Delaware Right to Life President Moira Sheridan told The Fix in a recent email that these laws are “discriminatory in nature because the availability of these pills is being pitched to college-age women as if they were children, unable to make decisions for themselves.”
Sheridan continued, “Women apparently can’t be trusted to walk to the nearest Planned Parenthood (both clinics within walking distance of Delaware State University and University of Delaware, the two colleges affected by this bill) or find a way to get to an abortion clinic in the state of Delaware.”
MORE: Researchers say medical residents avoiding pro-life states, but some OB-GYNs skeptical
Students for Life Action spokesperson Chanel Jacobs told The Fix the bill will end children’s lives and “abuse” taxpayers’ money.
“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. It does this by blocking the production of the hormone progesterone. The second, misoprostol, is taken between 24 and 48 hours later and induces contractions to expel the dead embryo.
Sheridan at Delaware Right to Life questioned the preparedness of colleges to handle students’ abortion complications.
She told The Fix, “University health centers are not equipped to handle the severe side effects and emergencies associated with the pill such as excessive bleeding and passing out from pain. Nor can they determine if the baby has actually been expelled and the abortion completed; often a second, surgical abortion is required.”
Jacobs at Students for Life Action told The Fix abortions do not fit with the mission of higher education either.
“Colleges and universities exist to train up future leaders, not to end the lives of their children or even to end their lives through distribution of deadly pills,” Jacobs said.
The Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion, reported that medication abortion accounted for 63 percent of all abortions 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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