Assessing the need for on-campus medication abortion at California Community Colleges

Abstract

Objective: No studies have assessed the need for abortion access at California Community Colleges (CCCs), despite recent research and legislative attention toward on-campus medication abortion access at California’s public universities, and the fact that CCCs enroll more than twice the number of students per year as the public universities. Methods: A demographic analysis compares student populations at California’s public universities and CCCs using publicly-available data. Monthly demand for medication abortion among CCC students is estimated based on campus enrollment data, and age-, method- and state-adjusted abortion rates. Results: There is demographic similarity amongst these student populations with respect to gender and age makeup, supporting the use of methods created to estimate abortion demand in California public university students in this study. It is estimated that in total, CCC students seek 865 − 1,109 medication abortions each month. Conclusions: There is a clear need for medication abortion access at CCCs.

Keywords:

• Abortion
• California
• medication abortion
• student health centers

Acknowledgments

The author gives great thanks to Drs. Anke Hemmerling and Ndola Prata of the UC Berkeley School of Public Health for their mentorship and helpful suggestions on this manuscript. They are also grateful for research guidance from Dr. Ushma Upadhyay of UCSF Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health.

Conflict of interest disclosure

The author has no conflicts of interest to disclose. This study did not require IRB approval due to using publicly available de-identified data.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.