Team,

May 1 is “National College Decision Day” in the United States, when millions of students will officially commit to their college of choice. While students consider a number of factors when deciding on what college to attend—such as affordability, academics, and campus life—one concern is of growing importance: access to abortion care.

It has been two years since the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated the constitutional right to abortion, and abortion is now banned or severely restricted in half of U.S. states. In the post-Roe landscape, that means millions of young people will be heading to colleges in places with far fewer options to manage unintended pregnancies.

An overwhelming majority of currently enrolled and prospective college students said reproductive health care policies are important in their enrollment decisions, according to the Lumina Foundation-Gallup 2024 State of Higher Education Study:

71% say state reproductive health care policies
impact college choice
AND
80% of all current/prospective students
prefer states with greater access

And it’s not just college students: in a study published in the Journal of Medical Ethics, more than half (58%) of the medical students surveyed said they were unlikely to apply for residency programs in states with abortion restrictions. Because of these restrictions, maternal health care deserts are cropping up across the country, and these findings only point to a worsening of that crisis.

With abortion laws rapidly shifting across the U.S., the Center for Reproductive Rights’ 'After Roe Fell' map tracks abortion laws by state and is updated in real time by our team of legal experts. The interactive map is an incredible resource that can help you stay up to date on the legal status of abortion in your state, or any other.

Abortion bans impact all of us, team. We know anti-abortion extremists want to ban abortion nationwide, and they will do whatever it takes for that to happen, from banning abortion to eliminating access to medication abortion, to gutting rights to emergency care.

But we won't let that happen.

Thank you for staying aware and informed on your reproductive rights. We’re so grateful you're with us. 

Onward,
Center for Reproductive Rights