Medication abortion access: Implications for institutions of higher education
Abortion
Awarded 2025
Emerging Scholars in Family Planning
Jaclyn Recktenwald, MSEd
University of Pennsylvania
$5,000

Access to medication abortion through on-campus health centers may have significant implications for student success and well-being, yet this relationship remains underexplored. As college students face increasingly outsized legal, geographic, and institutional barriers to accessing care, understanding this impact on the student experience is increasingly urgent. While some states have responded to federal abortion bans by expanding access to medication abortion on campus, little is known about how these policies are implemented at the institutional level. This dissertation study will investigate how public institutions of higher education implement medication abortion programs and explore the potential implications of these programs for student success and well-being. Using a qualitative multi-case study approach, this dissertation will examine two co-located public institutions in a state where legislation has allocated funding for campus-based medication abortion programs. By focusing on the implementation of medication abortion programs and their potential connection to student outcomes, this study will contribute new insights to both higher education and public health scholarship, while informing institutional and state-level policy decisions in a post-Roe landscape.