University of Washington health center starts offering students medical abortion prescriptions
The prescriptions provided by the health center are for mifepristone and misoprostol, two abortion drugs.
In nearby California, public universities are required to provide students medical abortion if they seek it.
The University of Washington’s health center has started handing out prescriptions for medical abortion pills.
Starting on Feb. 10, students coming to the Husky Health Center on campus can receive prescriptions for the drugs mifepristone and misoprostol, as reported by The Daily.
A university official told Campus Reform that “[t]here is no additional cost to the University for these [abortion] services.”
[RELATED: Barnard College students demand medication abortion on campus]
Dr. Kathy Johnson, unit director of the health center’s OB/GYN Clinic, clarified: “The first pill, mifepristone, blocks the hormone progesterone and stops a pregnancy from growing . . .The second pill, misoprostol, causes uterine cramping to empty the uterus,” as The Daily reported.
The university’s provision of medical abortion prescriptions comes as the Washington legislature is considering Senate Bill 5321, which would force the state’s public colleges and universities to “offer access to medication abortion through the student health center or through information and referral services to qualified health care organizations, including telehealth organizations.”
A report published in the Journal for American College Health on Aug. 10, 2023, estimated at the time that “students at the 11 Washington public universities obtained between 549 and 932 medication abortions annually.”
The University of Washington is not the only school to offer such pro-abortion options.
In nearby California, “Student health centers on California State University or University of California campuses must offer medication abortion,” as noted on the state government website.
