University of California (UC) Berkeley students are lamenting the cost and the time it takes to procure drugs to induce abortion and are now demanding for the public university to provide the said pills for free.
Just this month, UC Berkeley students launched a petition for the campus to dole out abortion pills at the on-campus health center. Activists are complaining that one has to pay around US$500 to get their hands on abortion pills and visit clinics several times just to undergo the procedure, The College Fix reports.
The abortion pill, called RU-486, is a combination of drugs that induces miscarriage in pregnant women. The drug, which is administered during the first 10 weeks of gestation, causes nausea, heavy bleeding, and severe abdominal pain
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The bill says the campus provided abortion services during the 1980s, but the services were halted because of the lack of trained professionals. However, they student government says there are now trained abortion providers at the UC health office.
The graduate student government had also reportedly passed a similar resolution.
“When medication abortion is not available at [University Health Services], students who are seeking an abortion face financial, time, and travel constraint burdens that create negative impacts on academic performance and mental health,” the resolution says. “Abortion is a common health-care service and access to abortion is necessary and relevant in student life.”
Meanwhile, Berkeley’s UHS Communications Manage Kim Jarboe sent The College Fix a statement saying the resolution does not guarantee an action on the issue. She added that there are a lot of high-quality clinics around the Berkeley campus that can provide contraception, emergency contraception, abortion, and pregnancy
On January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court, on the case of Roe v Wade, ruled to legalize abortion in all fifty US states. Forty two years after this decision, approximately 56 million abortions have been performed in the US alone and this number continues to climb drastically day to day. For some individuals, this number is simply not enough. For example, in her article, It Is Time to Integrate Abortion into Primary Care, Susan Yanow argues the case that abortion is here to stay. With this observation, she further believes that the procedure should be made more available to all women, and likewise, any physician should be easily allowed to perform abortions.
More and more, doctors, nurses, counselors, and other abortion clinic workers are speaking out about the deep secrets that go on within the clinics. Some of these workers quit because they can no longer deal with the reality of taking innocent human lives day after day. Sadly, some remain, mostly because they get paid a generous amount of money. Abortion is a violent act, therefore doctors, nurses and even counselors are threaten by pro-life believers. Kristi Burton Brown, a pro-life attorney, published an online article in January 2013 which quotes Don Sloan, M.D. a clinical associate professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the New York Medical College and Director of the Division of Human Sexuality and Psychosomatics
The cost to get an abortion pill ranges from $0 to $800. Many families cannot afford this cost because of low income which has spiraled down to an all time low with 1 of 2 Americans living in poverty or scraping by with what they have(cbs news), many families living in poverty or with very low income have medicaid which does not pay for the abortion pill unless you are raped or are dying which is only two of the many reasons why a woman would need an abortion. The woman’s right to take an abortion should be respected and not taken away, the government should help women who are going through unwanted pregnancies acquire the abortion pill by paying for at least a small amount of what the women can’t afford because it takes time to acquire the amount of money you need in order to buy the pill. Many times when a woman needs an abortion they will not be able to get it during the first trimester due to lack of funds and transportation so they will have to get it during the second trimester which can cost up to $2000.
Recently in Colorado, a religious man in a Planned Parenthood unit in Colorado Springs shot four people. Religious protesters often surround the Planned Parenthood’s unit in Stapleton, where the abortion procedures take place. It is clear that religion plays a big role in women’s health issue. However, if abortion is a very sensitive matter because it would be a murder for some individuals, using birth control is as despicable as using condoms – which no one considers to demand a prescription for. For those who seriously believe that life starts right at the fecundation moment, birth control should not pose an issue. And if there’s a study that proved that abortions among teenagers dropped so considerably, turning the birth control more accessible should be something desirable, at least to avoid a “greater
A difficult dilemma exists today in the American healthcare system concerning the rights of healthcare and religious institutions, universities with religious affiliation, and private business owners who refuse to provide insurance that covers abortion related services and or medications pertaining to such services. This quandary also encompasses individual practitioners such as physicians and nurses who refuse to participate in this practice. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) now requires contraceptive coverage, and contraceptive counseling for those businesses and practitioners who participate in the Health Insurance Marketplace, (HealthCare.gov, 2016), and in some states, the ACA also requires that
Pregnancy clinics across America are helping numerous individuals everyday. But, federally funded pregnancy clinics have begun to fight for right to deny abortion information to their patients. Activists rallied against the California law that requires all clinics to inform patients of low cost abortion options, which is being argued as to violate their First Amendment right; freedom of speech. The executive director of the East County Pregnancy Care Clinic, Josh McClure, “I don’t want to put up a sign where you can go for an abortion.” Another statement was released, talking about how making a sign stating those points, would be unconstitutional. Crisis Pregnancy Centers are run by people who are “anti-abortion.” These centers known to give
In 1973, the United States Supreme Court voted to uphold the legality of abortion. In the period immediately after the decision, small steps were staring to be made to make basic women’s healthcare available to all women in the country; regardless of race, religion, or income bracket. The role of pro-choice activists, however, quickly began to need to shape itself around countering antiabortion initiatives. At the front of the conservative agenda is the restriction of affordable contraception and pregnancy care. In the current political climate, for the first time since Roe v. Wade, for many women of all backgrounds, it is hard to receive an abortion safely and privately. Modern laws and policies have so greatly
For years planned parenthood has been taking in patients and giving them options for the abortion types they want. Before deciding what type of abortion a patient wants nurses from planned parenthood talk to the patients about abortion. After nurses talk to the patients if they are 100% sure, they begin to explain the types of abortion more. “"Abortion pill" is the popular name for using 2 medicines to end a pregnancy – mifepristone and misoprostol.”(Planned parenthood ). The abortion pill is given to women when they are not that fair in their pregnancy. The pill makes
S. Henshaw, L. Finer, The Accessibility of Abortion Services in the United States, 2001, Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, Volume 35, Number 1, January/February 2003. Grimes, DA. Clinicians Who Provide Abortions: The Thinning Ranks, Obstetrics & Gynecology, 1992, 80: 719.
Women who are denied abortion are more likely to become unemployed, be on public welfare, and fall below the poverty line. A study done by the University of California at San Francisco found the women turned away from abortion clinics were three times more likely to be below the poverty than women who had received an abortion. According to the ASPE, the poverty line in the United States for a family of two, a mother and child, was $15, 930 in 2015. CNN calculated that it cost between $12,500 and $14,000 to raise a child, which consumes 85 percent of the poverty stricken family of two’s income. With legal abortions, single mothers do not have to raise children that will send them into poverty, thus lowering the national level of poverty. Also, implementing laws banning abortion and contraceptive services costs the government millions of dollars. The Guttmacher Institute states that by allowing women women with the contraceptive services they want, for every $1 invested in family planning services, $7.09 in Medicaid costs is saved. The effects of cutting off reproductive choices was displayed in Texas in 2011. State legislators stripped the $73 million funding for family planning services. With low-income families denied reproductive services, an estimated 24,000 additional babies were to be born costing Texans as much as $273 million due to medical expenses under Medicaid. After Texas lawmakers saw the numbers, both
States that are strict on abortion policies have implemented it well into their healthcare system. The criterion that should be most focused on is the equity of the outcomes. The purpose of this research and policy alternatives is for more access and equal access to abortion/pregnancy education in general.
Almost 90% of the unwanted pregnancies are because the availability for the birth controls prescription only. If birth control were non-prescription/OTC, then there would be more access to those that are homeless or need the medication discreetly. Abortion is a choice that women have, and getting free birth control without a prescription should be a choice too. “Providing free, reliable birth control to women could prevent between 41 percent and 71 percent of abortions in the United States” (Pappas “Free Birth” 1). If birth control were not sold OTC/non-prescription then the abortion rate would go up and be more costly on the U.S. A study was shown by a college student and his friends when he rounded up 9,256 women of the ages 14-45 in the St. Louisiana area with flyers, doctors and by just talking about it in normal conversation was given the choice of any reversible birth control methods from the pill, patch, a long-lasting intrauterine device or known as IUDs or the hormonal implants about more than half of the women chose the IUDs, 17% of the women chose the hormonal implants and the remaining chose the pill and other various methods which made the abortion rate drop (Pappas “Free Birth”). With all of the women within the free contraceptive program, the birth rate among the teens was 6.3 per 1000th women, which was a dramatic change from the overall
Birth control has been funded by the government for a very long time, but it is not sent out the right message. This is because with the birth control being paid for, they need not worry about getting pregnant and, they would not learn the consequences of their actions. While that is an understandable concern, girls’ access to free birth control methods is a part of the Affordable Healthcare Act. Due to the Affordable Healthcare act, the number of unintended pregnancies and abortions in the US was 32 percent lower in 2012. This statistic shows the impact the government could make if funding is provided to planned parenthood and other female health institutes.
This harkens back to before 1973, when birth control and sex education was not as readily available, not always effective and never discussed in most families. Those old cultural issues are no longer relevant and therefore women should be responsible enough to use birth control and find effective contraceptives. Boston Globe columnist Ellen Goodman, an advocate for abortion, recently wrote, “After all, those of us who remember…when 10,000 American women a year died from illegal abortions don’t have to imagine a world without choices” (Goodman). This is one of many reasons why pro-choice members support legal abortion. This statistic, however, contradicts the Center for Disease Control who recorded in 1957 that only thirty-nine women died due to illegal abortions (Horn). While thirty-nine is still a significant number, it does not compare to Goodman’s estimate of 10,000, a number pro-choice supporters use to justify legal abortion. It is also very difficult to determine if abortions are safe because only “27 states require providers to report post-abortion complications” (“Abortion Reporting Requirements”). Another topic that enrages pro-choice supporters is the issue of rape. Many Americans believe that abortion should be allowed because of rape cases, albeit, less than one percent of the majority of abortions are due to rape cases. Pro-choice supporters also tend to argue that the legality of abortions must be continued following rape. There are however, emergency post-rape contraception that significantly reduces the incidents of pregnancy. According to some doctor’s views, this is a neglected preventative health measure (Steward and Trussell). While legal abortions, according to pro-choice members, are instituted for giving women the choice to choose, it
Illegal abortions are unsafe and account for 13% of all the deaths of woman because of serious complications. The most common grounds which an abortion is allowed is to save a woman’s life, in situations of rape or incest, and for economic or social reasons. In many circumstances where a safe abortion is legal, women risk their lives and many die because the obligation had not been met. In many areas unsupervised uses of misoprostol is being taken by those who cannot access services. Misoprostol is a drug used for early abortions, to treat missed abortions, and to induce labor. Every women of every social class seek terminations, typically a woman who ends her pregnancy is young, white, unmarried, poor, or over the age of 40. More than half of six million pregnancies each year are unplanned and, about half of them end up in abortions.