Oct 22, 2019
Outrage and a Dorm Room. The Story Behind California’s Revolutionary Medication Abortion Law.
by Marandah Field-Elliot
Across the country, we are seeing an unprecedented, coordinated attack by anti-abortion politicians on abortion. From state legislatures to the White House, extremist politicians are looking to outright ban abortion nationwide. In such a seemingly dire political moment, it may seem impossible to fight back. But one of the most meaningful things people can do is organize for change in their very own backyards, book clubs, and campuses. In fact, one of the most proactive pieces of legislation aimed at safeguarding abortion access this year was started in a dorm room at UC Berkeley. I know, because I was there.
When I was a sophomore at UC Berkeley, I joined a brand-new campus campaign aimed at getting our on-campus student health center to offer medication abortion. Medication abortion is a safe and legal two-pill regimen for ending a pregnancy. Our organizing efforts were in direct response to the needs of our peers and the lack of access to abortion on campus. We recognized that while abortion is legal in California, it wasn’t accessible to students on our campus due to logistical, financial, and academic barriers.
Students United for Reproductive Justice at UC Berkeley, started by alums Adiba Khan and Meghan Warner, mobilized on campus, and we quickly found that students were hungry to get involved in our campaign. With the dedicated support of our peers, we gathered over 1,000 student signatures on a petition to allow medication abortion on campus, sought over 100 academic faculty in support of our initiative and secured a $120,000 grant to cover implementation costs.
Unfortunately, our rapid progress was met with a major obstacle: our campus administrators made clear UC Berkeley was unwilling to implement medication abortion on their own. It was time to take our campaign to the next level. We partnered with State Senator Connie Leyva, the Women’s Foundation of California, and several other organizations to co-sponsor the College Student Right to Access Act, which requires all 34 California public universities to make medication abortion available at their on-campus student health centers.
For three years, our student-led organization, Students United for Reproductive Justice at UC Berkeley and the justCARE: Campus Action for Reproductive Equity campaign, moved our bill from a far-fetched idea to a legitimate piece of legislation. It was not easy; at every step of the process, we faced dismissiveness to outright opposition. We found that while our school administrators, and later, state legislators, would often espouse their hypothetical support for reproductive rights and their fear of the fall of Roe v. Wade, they refused to take our youth-led campaign seriously. The greatest challenge of our campaign was convincing those in power that being “pro-choice” comes with an obligation to meaningfully remove barriers to accessing a person’s choice to seek an abortion.
Four years, two bills, countless student supporters, a national network of supporting organizations, and a veto from a previous governor later, we have won. Governor Gavin Newsom signed the College Student Right to Access Act, also known as Senate Bill 24 by Senator Connie M. Leyva (D-Chino), on October 12, 2019. Those in power have finally recognized what us young leaders have known all along: at a time when abortion rights are threatened nationally, California must be a leader and support students’ access to abortion care on campus.
Gavin Newsom’s signature on the landmark College Student Right to Access Act (SB24) demonstrates what needs to be a national norm: if we support young people in the work they are already doing to safeguard abortion access, we can and will win. I have seen it happen.
Young people leading on abortion access isn’t new; the action we take in our local communities to make abortion more accessible has a documented history of creating long-lasting change. Fifty years ago, a student group at UT Austin recognized the need to provide practical support to pregnant people seeking abortion on their campus and beyond. Through grassroots tactics such as community meetings, producing content for their local newspaper, and organizing their fellow students, the Austin Women’s Liberation built a youth-led campaign that eventually led to the landmark case Roe v. Wade. The groundwork for the most monumental expansion in abortion rights in this country was started not by national organizations or politicians, but by young people.
Amidst a national crisis in abortion access, hope lies in young people who are bringing forward creative, progressive, innovative solutions, and we need to follow their lead. These include not just the many young people who worked on this campaign, like Bex Whitehead and Jessy Rosales, but folks like HK Gray, who testified before Congress, and Jordyn Close who is a young leader working for abortion access in Ohio. Around the country, young people are stepping forward to bravely share their personal stories about accessing abortion and demanding change to decrease abortion stigma, make abortion access more affordable, and remove parental involvement laws.
I am deeply proud to have been a part of a campaign that pushed an idea formed by a small group of undergraduates all the way into California law. I hope this can serve as further evidence that amidst our national crisis in reproductive rights, we must prioritize, uplift, and take seriously the work young folks are doing to remove barriers to abortion access.
Marandah Field-Elliot, former Co-Director of Students United for Reproductive Justice at Berkeley, is currently State Campaign Manager for Abortion Access at Advocates for Youth.
