Students Fear for Abortion Rights Post-Election

Following Donald Trump’s reelection and concerns over his future administration’s threat to reproductive health care, the Reproductive Justice Alliance (RJA) and Keefe Health Center remain committed to reproductive health care in light of Trump’s nationwide abortion ban threat.

As students worry about the future of reproductive rights, Keefe Health Center’s director Dr. Emily Jones wrote to The Student that “we continue to monitor the situation as it develops.” Even so, the RJA says that it wants the administration to be more vocal about the election results and to provide more reproductive health care on campus.

In April 2023, Massachusetts passed an executive order that confirmed protections for medication abortion under existing state law. In June 2024, a different executive order reaffirmed and recognized that state law protects the right to an abortion. On the part of the campus, Jones wrote that the health center “will do everything we can to protect the health and wellbeing of our students.”

However, Jones also wrote that the health center is not currently changing its practices or policies. “If future legislation shifts the environment, we will work closely with our legal counsel to assure we can provide the health care needed by our students.”

The health center feels fortunate to be in a state where reproductive health care rights are protected she wrote.

Massachusetts law permits abortions up to 24 weeks, and after that period, in cases of fatal fetal anomalies or to protect the physical and mental health of the pregnant person.

As a woman studying to become a doctor, Sophie Bredar ’27 finds it “deeply disheartening to feel like the agenda over the next four years may silence the medical needs of women and people in need of reproductive care.”

Many expect the Trump administration to crack down on reproductive freedoms by having the FDA make the abortion pill mifepristone harder to access and other policy proposals.

Emanuelle Toulouse ’27 has noticed “lots of anxiety” post-election about reproductive rights, which she sees “reflected in huge spikes in orders of morning-after pills.”

Gracie Rowland ’25, president of the RJA, described a feeling of outrage with Trump’s election, in part because of concerns that he will crack down on abortion. “I think that anger is rooted in grief and that we are mourning the loss of those who may lose their lives from the lack of necessary health care,” she said.

Bredar held similar sentiments. “My fear is that victims of assault, incest, and other forms of physical violence will not be granted appropriate medical care, as well as individuals whose pregnancies pose a significant threat to their lives.”

Julia Santos ’25, vice president of the RJA, said that while the RJA more broadly is similarly outraged by the election results, “it has definitely strengthened our resolve to continue to keep fighting for reproductive justice and supporting those who are most affected by these horrible outcomes.”

While Santos also feels that reproductive rights are currently less at risk in Massachusetts, she emphasized that the RJA considers a national abortion ban a real possibility.

“In the case that under the Trump administration, he does decide to try to enact a nationwide abortion ban, then our activism and our work will shift more so in reaction to that,” Santos said.

Rowland added that we do not know what will happen under Trump’s administration, and emphasized that not everyone on campus lives in a blue state or in the U.S. “Summers happen, breaks happen. I think that the fear is very palpable,” she said.

Currently, the health center provides reproductive counseling, which includes prescribing birth control and emergency contraception. Even so, the RJA is “very scared” about Trump’s potential restrictions on birth control and fertility treatment.

The health center does not offer abortions, but staff can provide pregnancy tests and inform students of their insurance and financial support options around abortion care. For students seeking abortions, the center collaborates with the Sexual and Reproductive Health Clinic at UMass Amherst, which provides medication abortion services.

The Keefe Health Center also works with Housing & Operations to move students to a private room with a bathroom “for a period of time if their condition warrants it,” Jones wrote.

There are concerns that pregnant people will face increased surveillance during the Trump administration. When asked about how the college will handle potential privacy concerns, Jones wrote, “We will continue to protect students’ health information.”

Rowland believes that the college should offer more reproductive health services, such as prescribing abortion pills on campus and purchasing an ultrasound machine.

The RJA, which often collaborates with the Women and Gender Center, is currently trying to work with the administration to distribute posters to bathrooms and residential halls about access to reproductive health care on campus. The RJA will also be working with the WGC to offer education about crisis pregnancy centers, which pose as clinics that can offer abortions in order to deter potential patients.

“Not everyone knows what options they have,” Rowland said, noting that most people do not know that they can get Plan B on the weekend on campus. She called it a “failing on the college” to not readily provide the information.

Moving forward, though, the RJA is “focusing on what we can control, not what we can’t.”

Correction, Nov. 21, 2024: A previous version of this article misstated the RJA’s relationship with crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs). They will be working with the WGC to provide education about CPCs, which deter or delay patients from getting abortions.