A proposal moving through the California Legislature would expand where students can obtain abortion pills, requiring the state's community colleges that run student health centers to offer access to medication abortion.
What the bill would do
The measure, Assembly Bill 2540, is authored by Assemblymember Catherine Stefani, a San Francisco Democrat, who has called it the Community College Student Right to Access Act. It would require community colleges that have student health centers to offer access to medication abortion beginning in 2029, provided the Legislature appropriates money to pay for it, CalMatters reported. Roughly 92 campuses statewide have such centers.
An earlier version would have required colleges to provide the pills on site. The bill was since amended so that campuses must "offer access," which could be satisfied through campus staff, telehealth, contracts with outside agencies or partnerships with community health providers, CalMatters reported. It would also require campuses, and the universities already covered by the earlier law, to publicize the service.
Building on a 2019 law
The bill extends a policy California adopted in 2019. That law, Senate Bill 24, required University of California and California State University health centers to provide medication abortion, a mandate that took effect in 2023. Community colleges, the state's largest public higher-education system by enrollment, were left out. AB 2540 would bring all three systems into closer alignment.
The case for it
Supporters argue the measure would close a gap for community college students, who are more likely to be low-income, to work while studying and to live far from an abortion provider. When care is available only off campus, they say, cost, transportation, insurance and privacy can all become barriers, LAist reported. Putting access at the campus health center, in their view, is a matter of equity.
The case against it
The bill is not without opposition from within the system it would govern. The Health Services Association of California Community Colleges, which represents student health programs across the state, came out against the measure, saying in an April letter to lawmakers that many community college health centers do not prescribe medication and lack the staffing and infrastructure to provide medication abortion, CalMatters reported. Cost is also a live question: the shift to "offer access" was among the changes made as lawmakers weighed the practical demands on small campus clinics.
Where it stands
AB 2540 has cleared the Assembly and moved to the Senate, where it was referred to the Health and Education committees in June and, after amendments, sent on July 2 to the Senate Appropriations Committee for a review of its cost, CalMatters reported. That fiscal review, and whether the state is willing to fund the requirement, will help determine whether the mandate becomes law and how far it reaches.
