College campuses are in many ways the epicenter of the Pro-Life movement. Abortion activists have targeted and infiltrated higher education with a radical anti-Life agenda. There is a growing movement of committed Pro-Life leaders in colleges and universities across the U.S., but the stranglehold of the anti-Life movement and the abortion industry on college campuses remains strong.
A clear indication of the powerful anti-Life lobbying groups with college students in the crosshairs can be seen in a recent media outcry in California. The full furor of the abortion lobby came to light after state legislators tried, yet again, to force health centers at all University of California and Cal State University campuses to dispense the lethal abortion pill to any student seeking an elective abortion before 10 weeks of pregnancy. The legislation reached the governor’s desk, and outgoing Governor Jerry Brown vetoed the bill.
This was not a Pro-Life stand on Brown’s part; he is no friend of the Pro-Life movement. The governor simply made the rational observation that there was no significant impediment to students undergoing an abortion. California is, after all, a state that uses taxpayer dollars to pay for elective abortions and already has vending machines dispensing abortifacients on public university campuses. Brown observed in a statement about his veto, “According to a study sponsored by supporters of this legislation, the average distance to abortion providers in campus communities varies from five to seven miles, not an unreasonable distance.”
The reaction from anti-Life politicians and media personalities revealed just how radical the abortion mob has become. Governor-elect Gavin Newsom has already said he would have signed the legislation and legislators have plans to reintroduce the bill. Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Robin Abcarian seethed about Brown’s supposed betrayal of impressionable college students seeking elective abortions. Abcarian proclaims, “It takes a particularly privileged, out-of-touch person to tell California college students that it’s no big inconvenience for them to travel up to seven miles to obtain an abortion pill. Good grief, Jerry Brown.”
While Abcarian rages about the shocking distance of a few miles for educated young people to traverse to undergo an elective procedure ending the life of a preborn child, the distance reveals something nefarious that Abcarian misses. The average distance between every public institution of higher education in California and an abortion mill is certainly not an insurmountable obstacle placed on college students seeking elective abortion. Rather, the proximity of abortion mills to campuses reveals the fact that the abortion industry targets vulnerable populations.
This trend is not confined to California. One study showed that of 780 Planned Parenthood affiliates across the United States, 78.8% (615) were located within 5 miles of a college or university. These are prime locations for abortion businesses, because more than 40% of abortions are committed on women 18-24-years-old. College students are often in high pressure situations, not yet making an income, and often not living a lifestyle conducive to raising children. Pushing abortion on this demographic makes for a lucrative business.
The abortion pill, which pro-abortion legislators want casually dispensed at every campus health center, is a deadly pill that is also dangerous for women. The push for more abortions before all else indicts the abortion lobby for precisely what they always accuse Pro-Lifers of: endangering women. The Pro-Life movement seeks to love them both, doing what is best for the mother in every instance while also respecting the Right to Life of her preborn child.
Of course, that’s not the way abortion activists see the situation. If there was any doubt about the truly radical, anti-Life motivations of the California proposal, Abcarian explains everything in her piece. From castigating Brown for his supposed betrayal of women by not putting abortion on every college and university campus, Abcarian goes on to “celebrate [abortion]as one of the safest medical procedures on Earth” and call abortion “a social good.” Naturally, she closes with an ode to the radical, anti-Life group #ShoutYourAbortion. Only “a particularly privileged, out-of-touch person” would describe the violent destruction of a preborn baby as a “social good.”