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Republicans Introduce Legislation to Defund Schools Which Aid in Dangerous DIY Abortions on College Campuses

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  July 25, 2021 4:30 PM

Last week, Republicans in both the U.S. House and Senate introduced the Protecting Life on College Campus Act of 2021. According to a press release, the legislation will defund "any institution of higher learning that hosts or is affiliated with a student-based service site that provides abortion drugs or abortion to students of the institution or to employees of the institution or site."

In order for these institutions to remain eligible for such federal funding, they will have to submit annual reports to the Secretaries of Education and Health and Human Services to certify there are no sites providing such abortions to their students. 

The legislation is an effort from Reps. Chip Roy (R-TX) and Mary Miller (R-IL), with over 50 co-sponsors in the House. Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), who is the chair and founder of the Senate's Pro-Life Caucus, has introduced a version in the Senate.

The press release makes clear that the "legislation is in direct response to California’s radical chemical abortion pill mandate on college campuses. Starting in 2023, California will require their 34 public universities to provide chemical abortion pills to their students without exception." In October 2019, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) signed that legislation in question, the College Student Right to Access Act. 

As I've written about the method before:

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...A woman will take Mifepristone which will cut off nutrients to starve her unborn child. A day or two later, she will take Misoprostol, which induces contractions. At home, without doctor supervision, a woman's body will expel the dead child. If this sounds like a woman has to give birth to her dead baby, which she will then flush down the toilet, it's because that's exactly what this is.

...

Not shockingly, this method is particularly dangerous. It carries with it four times the complications of surgical abortions. Incomplete abortions happen 5 percent of the time, with some studies finding 10 percent of women facing incomplete abortions at 9-weeks gestation. This can lead to death from infection if remaining fetal parts or tissue are not properly removed. 

Side-effects and risk associated with this method include abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, weakness, fever/chills, and headaches. The bleeding may last for weeks after the abortion. 

It's also gaining popularity. Thanks to this method--which accounted for 41 percent of abortions in 2018--total abortions have actually increased.  

The Biden administration's FDA in April recommended these pills be made easily available through the mail or telemedicine. Previously, such availability was tied up in the courts, on account of the pandemic.

Rep. Miller noted that "Chemical abortions are the future the abortion issue is lobbying for, and I know that as a mother of five daughters, my girls and their peers are the most vulnerable to the chemical abortion industry. The abortion industry does not advocate for women, as they constantly claim to do. They exploit young women but leave them to deal with the consequences and severe potential side effects all on their own."

Statements from the members in the press release as well as during a Wednesday press conference stuck to a theme of protecting people from the abortion industry, whether it be taxpayers, vulnerable young women, as well as, unborn children, of course.

"A college dorm room is no place to have a do-it-yourself abortion, and the American taxpayer should not be paying for the destruction of innocent human life on our college campuses. But, as we already know, what the abortion industry really cares about are profits—not the welfare of mothers or the integrity of higher learning," said Rep. Roy. "The Protecting Life on College Campuses Act is about guarding young college women and their unborn children from the predatory abortion industry’s radical and reckless push for universal access to abortions."

Students for Life of America Action, which was also a part of the press conference, has a site called This is Chemical Abortion, with its sister organization of Students for Life and Heartbeat International.