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The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade has caused many states’ trigger laws to take effect. This has upset many people, especially women, all over the United States. These abortion bans have caused many students to reconsider where they want to go to college.
Some students, like 16-year-old Nina Huang, have been crossing off colleges that are in states with strict abortion laws. For example, last month Ohio enacted a near-total ban on abortion that caused a 10-year-old rape victim to seek medical assistance in a nearby state.
Huang is now casting a wider net to colleges that reside in states with less restrictive laws. Like California, Maine, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Montana, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, and New Hampshire.
Kristen Willmott, a counselor with Top Tier Admissions in Massachusetts, noted that some high schoolers have removed Tennessee, Texas, and Florida from their top state choice due to their restrive abortion laws.
Daniel Santos, the CEO of Prepory, a college counseling company in Florida acknowledged the shift of future college students, according to The Denver Gazette. “Some of our students have explicitly stated that they will not apply to colleges and universities in states which may infringe on their access to reproductive rights,” he added.
Alexis Prisco, a high school student in Maryland, stated her mother had “warned,” her she needed to be careful when applying to schools in states with trigger laws.”
The overturning of Roe v. Wade did not just affect women’s rights to an abortion, and privacy, it also affected the LGBTQ+ community. For instance, Alabama’s trigger laws not only made abortions illegal but also made it against the law for transgenders from using bathrooms or locker rooms that are different than their designated birth sex.
Florida’s Individual Freedom Act prevents schools and workplaces in the state from instructing or training anyone that may make them feel they bear some “personal responsibility” for historic wrongdoings because of their color, race, sex, or national origin.
Abortion bans were just a stepping stone for some government officials to control the people of the United States of America. As Winston Churchill once said, “United we stand. Divided we fall.”
Written by Sheena Robertson
Sources:
The Hill: Ten laws impacting LGBTQ+ rights set to take effect today
Politico: Abortion laws by state: Where abortions are illegal after Roe v. Wade overturned
Denver Gazette: Future college students rethink schools in states banning abortions
Reuters: Abortion bans force U.S. students to rethink college plans
Top and Featured Image Courtesy of Baishampayan Ghose‘s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Inset Image Courtesy of SERSeanCrane‘s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
