The Quickie: Overwhelming Majority of Students Value Reproductive Health Access in Choosing College

Welcome to “The Quickie” — Planned Parenthood Action Fund’s daily tipsheet on the top health care & reproductive rights stories of the day. You can read “The Quickie'' online here.

In today’s Quickie: 3 in 4 students value reproductive health access in choosing college, Americans favor no change to mifepristone access by 2-to-1 margin, and our weekly state fights round-up. 

NEW DATA: ABOUT 3 IN 4 STUDENTS VALUE REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH ACCESS IN CHOOSING COLLEGE: Yesterday, Lumina Foundation and Gallup released new data showing that a strong majority of people view reproductive health care access as important in choosing a college and are more likely to pick a college in a state that protects access.  

72% of currently enrolled college students and 60% of unenrolled adults 18-59 without degrees say reproductive health laws are at least somewhat important to their college enrollment decision. Of those who consider reproductive health laws important, 81% say they are more likely to enroll in colleges in states with greater reproductive rights. 

Majorities of basically every demographic subset — party affiliation, age, and gender — are concerned about state-level reproductive health restrictions, showing once again that Americans are making consequential decisions based on their ability to access essential health care.

Read more at CNN, Forbes, and TIME. 

NEW POLLING SHOWS AMERICANS FAVOR NO CHANGE TO MIFEPRISTONE ACCESS BY 2-TO-1 MARGIN: According to new Yahoo News/YouGov polling, Americans favor the Supreme Court making no changes to mifepristone access by more than a 2-to-1 margin. Among voters, the gap is even wider with 57% favoring preventing any changes to access. In addition, 48% of respondents disapprove of the lower courts’ decisions as opposed to just 30% approval. 

These findings aren’t new: poll after poll after poll confirms that Americans support access to mifepristone – and abortion –  by massive margins. Here are some of the stats: 

• Pew Research finds that Americans believe mifepristone should be legal in their state by a 2-to-1 margin. Younger Americans under age 30 support access to mifepristone by a 54-point margin. 
• Ipsos finds that support for access to mifepristone crosses partisan divides: two-thirds of all Americans believe it should be legal, including a whopping 84% of Democrats, 67% of independents, and nearly half of Republicans. 
• Navigator also confirms that three in five Americans think early medication abortion care should remain legal, including clear majorities of Democrats (78%) and independents (60%) and a plurality of Republicans (43%).  

STATE FIGHTS ROUND UP: Proactive measures are rapidly advancing in Oregon and Washington, while anti-abortion lawmakers schedule votes on abortion bans in Nebraska and South Carolina. 

Proactive efforts:

• Oregon lawmakers are advancing HB2002, a proactive omnibus bill that will, among other things, allocate funding to expand reproductive health services in rural areas and create infrastructure to support access to medication abortion for students at public state universities. HB2002 is scheduled for a hearing in the Senate Rules Committee on Tuesday. SJR33, a legislatively-referred constitutional amendment to protect abortion rights, marriage equality, and gender-affirming care in the state constitution, is also advancing.
• Washington lawmakers approved HB1340, legislation to safeguard Washington-licensed providers of abortion and gender-affirming care from disciplinary actions as the result of adverse actions against them in states where this essential health care is banned. The bill is expected to be signed by Gov. Inslee in the coming weeks. SB 5768 / HB 1854, legislation to ramp up state distribution of mifepristone, also passed House appropriations and is now eligible for a second reading in the full House. It has already passed the Senate. 
• The New York State Legislature passed a law expanding access to medication abortion on state college and university campuses.
• The Alaska House Finance Committee held a public hearing on HB59, a bill to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage from 60 days to 12 months. The measure is a priority for Gov. Mike Dunleavy.

Defensive efforts:

• Next Thursday, the Nebraska Legislature will take up LB626, a proposed six-week ban, for a second round of voting. The bill must get three rounds of debate before it goes to the floor for a full vote.
• Next Tuesday, the South Carolina Senate will hold floor debate on HB 3774, a proposed total abortion ban that could be on Gov. Henry McMaster’s desk by Wednesday. The bill was fast-tracked by the Senate Majority Leader, who pulled it from committee and set it for special order — putting it ahead of all other bills even when there are objections. The Senate has already passed a six-week ban and has so far not been able to agree on passing a total ban. 
• North Dakota lawmakers have sent a near-total abortion ban to Gov. Burgum’s desk. Advocates have called on Burgum to veto the ban, which would offer only extremely narrow exceptions for the life of a pregnant person and for survivors of rape and incest up until six weeks of pregnancy. This comes a few weeks after the North Dakota Supreme Court blocked the state’s almost identical trigger abortion ban from taking effect.
• Kansas Gov. Kelley has vetoed two pieces of anti-abortion legislation: a medication “abortion” reversal bill and a so-called “born alive” bill. 
• The Ohio Senate and House are both advancing bills that would increase the threshold for passing ballot initiatives. SJR2 has passed the Senate. HJR1 has yet to pass the full House. 

Anti-LGBTQ+ efforts:

• Yesterday, North Dakota Gov. Burgum signed a gender-affirming care ban for minors into law.
• At the request of Gov. DeSantis, the Florida Board of Education approved an expansion of the “Don’t Say Gay” ban on classroom instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity in all grades. A bill that would severely restrict gender-affirming care for adults (SB 254/ HB1421) will likely get final approval by the Senate next week.
• Alaska lawmakers in the House Health Education Committee will consider a “Don’t Say Gay” bill next week. On the proactive side, public testimony was held yesterday on HB99, an LGBTQ+ non-discrimination bill. 
• In Ohio, a gender-affirming care ban for transgender youth had its first sponsor hearing this week in the House Public Health Policy Committee.
• Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed four pieces of anti-transgender legislation on Thursday, including a ban on gender-affirming care for minors (SB 26) and a measure that would prohibit schools from recognizing a student’s chosen pronouns, name, and expressed identity (SB 180).