As a student activist, I have helped expand access to reproductive and sexual health care on my campus after joining a reproductive justice student organization. Together, we organized to expand access and affordability of emergency contraception (Plan B) through campus vending machines and, more recently, have been lobbying university administrators to provide medication abortion on campus. These campaigns have involved months of pressure from student activists. 

Young people are one of the most negatively impacted groups by abortion bans and attacks on reproductive health care, with additional logistical and financial barriers for us to consider. [1] The majority of women seeking abortion care in the United States are in their twenties or younger. [2] And in the past few weeks, Republican senators have blocked bills to grant federal protections to in vitro fertilization (IVF) and access to contraception, decisions that are destroying our reproductive futures. [3] Now more than ever, it is crucial to give space to younger generations to take our access needs into our own hands.   

Students across the country should know the tools and resources available to shift the health care landscape of schools and campuses.  

For me, the first helpful step of engaging in student organizing projects was to identify a target. Any campaign, whether it be for acquiring a Plan B vending machine on campus or winning medication abortion access in your campus health center, needs to be focused on gaining favor of a specific person or group. For most institutions that will be a school administrator, like a Director of Health Services or Dean of Students. This will require some background research to understand what faculty oversee the campus health center or other services on campus.  

When my peers and I discovered that our university had plans to implement a Plan B vending machine on campus that had limited operating hours and sold Plan B at the same high price as the CVS across the street, we identified our relevant targets and began our months-long campaign to make this service affordable and accessible for all students.   

In any student organizing process, beginning with a big action such as a public rally will leave you with no room to progress your organizing efforts. Most of our successful organizing campaigns started with a petition and social media promotion, and then progressed over the course of a few months to actions like wheat-pasting, passing legislation in our student government, and organizing a no-donation pledge during the administrations fundraising week. Start with smaller actions and work incrementally toward bigger ones.  

Often, half of the organizing journey may simply be working to educate decision-makers on the importance of your demands prior to mobilizing public pressure. Demanding medication abortion on campus may require your school health care administrators to understand abortion as something outside the medical industrial complex, particularly if your school doesn’t have an ultrasound machine or provide telehealth abortion care. For many student activists, this can be a large learning curve and change won’t happen overnight. Simply getting a meeting with your administrators can take months of public pressure, whether it be through social media, flyering, campus rallies, or email campaigns.  

In student organizing, it is important to keep the momentum going and strive for a public commitment from your administration that your demands will be met. Sometimes this won’t happen before your graduation date, and that’s alright. The constant turnover of any college organization requires that you work with your peers in the reproductive justice community who can continue efforts once you graduate. There will always be more people to bring into the movement and maintain momentum.  

Through student community, we can fight for a stake in our reproductive decisions. No matter where you live, there will always be ways to improve the landscape of reproductive health care in your community. In states where abortion is banned or restricted, using these organizing tactics to address the access needs for comprehensive contraception care on campus can make a big impact. In states where abortion is legal, pressure can help make abortion care easier to access and more affordable. The collective power of our youth voices is becoming stronger with every student-led campaign and action across the country – and it is here to stay. 

Stephanie is working with Reproaction through Collective Power’s Collective Rising internship program.  

Sources:  

1. https://www.ansirh.org/research/research/how-abortion-bans-are-impacting-young-people 
2. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/03/25/what-the-data-says-about-abortion-in-the-us/ 
3. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/06/05/senate-gop-contraception/