Tell Gov. Newsom to keep his promise to sign SB24! - Call by Oct 13

California Governor Gavin Newsom

Sacramento Office: (916) 445-2841

My name is __________. I am a constituent, and my zip code is _______. I am a member of Indivisible SF.

I'm calling to urge Gov. Newsom to uphold his commitment to sign SB24 into law.

Background

SB24, which would make medication abortion available in student health centers at California's state colleges and universities, passed both houses of the legislature last session, but Gov. Brown vetoed it. Gov. Newsom said he would sign it into law if it passed the legislature again. It has done so, and he now needs to keep his promise.

Jerry Brown vetoed the College Right to Access Act in 2018, claiming that University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU) students don't need to be able to access medication abortion on campus because they can go to off-campus clinics. However, Gavin Newsom agreed that forcing an estimated 300 to 500 students to travel off campus for abortion care each month is an unreasonable burden, and he pledged when he was elected that he would sign the College Right to Access Act into law if the legislature passed it again, which has happened.

Most UC and CSU campuses are more than five miles from the nearest clinic, and 2/3 of UC students and 1/3 of CSU students don't own cars, which forces these students to take time away from classes, homework, and jobs to commute up to 2 hours each way to their appointments on public transit. For the 51% of UC and CSU students who are low-income, taking time off work to travel off-campus for care also threatens their financial stability. If they don't have the flexibility to travel, it can even delay their care past the ten-week limit for using medication abortion and leave them no choice but to have a more expensive medical procedure.

California's 34 public university campuses each have an on-campus health center that offers every other form of primary care, including routine reproductive health exams, STD testing, and contraception. These centers also meet all the state's legal requirements for providing medication abortion (private exam rooms, the ability to perform pregnancy testing and counseling, state-licensed clinicians). There is no reason to force students off campus to receive abortion care when they could easily have all their other health care needs met on campus. Gov. Newsom needs to keep his promise and sign SB24 into law by October 13.