California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed into law a radical bill that would force colleges to provide free abortions on campus.

The pro-abortion bill, which passed the state legislature in September, mandates that all public colleges and universities provide abortion drugs for free to students up to 10 weeks of pregnancy starting Jan. 1, 2023. The bill promotes abortion instead of providing young women with pregnancy support and options.

Now that the bill has become law, 34 public college campuses in the state will be forced to begin providing abortion drugs. According to the bill, lawmakers hope to collect about $10 million in private donations to help campuses set up their abortion practices. The state Commission on the Status of Women and Girls will be in charge of overseeing the funding.

However, a California Department of Finance report predicted that the donations will not be nearly enough to fund the program over the next several years. That means California taxpayers and students will be forced to pay for unborn babies to be aborted across the state

The legislation has been met with wide-spread concern, including from the colleges and Newsom’s own state Department of Finance, as well as pro-life advocates. Former Gov. Jerry Brown, a pro-abortion Democrat, vetoed a very similar bill in 2018, saying the measure was “not necessary” because abortions already are easily accessible to college students.

Brown pointed to a study from the supporters of the bill showing that the average distance to an abortion facility from campus was only about 5 miles.

The University of California and the California State University systems also have expressed concerns about the bill. They said they are not prepared to handle the immense costs of providing abortions on campus, according to CBS 13 Sacramento. They pointed to the costs of ultrasound machines, staff training, increased liabilities and more.

But abortion activists insisted that women need easy access to abortion.

“It’s about access. Just because you have a constitutional right, if you don’t have access to that constitutional right, then it’s really no right at all,” state Sen. Connie Levya, a Democrat and lead sponsor of the bill, told Vice. “I’m tired of women being shamed.”

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Leading pro-life advocates both nationally and in California bemoaned Newsom signing the bill.

Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins told LifeNews.com, “The Pro-Life Generation will not sit back and watch their college and university campuses be turned into Planned Parenthood’s new money making machine.”

Hawkins noted that SFLA is preparing to help students in other states that might consider the dangerous measure and that SFLA was gearing up to help students and healthcare workers in California whose conscience rights will be violated as they are forced to participate with abortions.

“Student fees underwrite the costs of the healthcare centers on campuses, which will now be required to distribute deadly chemical abortion pills. And healthcare professionals will also be forced to hand them out no matter the consequences to women’s health, but Students for Life of America will make sure to connect these victims of conscience right violations with legal help to stop the spread of a bad idea that is only good for propping up abortion vendors like Planned Parenthood,” said Hawkins.

“Women will lose, as the abortion lobby makes bank. This law includes funds that can go to Planned Parenthood for ‘consulting’ and new funds for ‘security’, allowing the nation’s number one abortion vendor to sit back and cash checks, enjoying the chaos of abortions taking place at schools without any of the risk,” said Hawkins.

“Governor Newsom’s decision to sign SB 24 is infuriating and outrageous,” California Family Council President Jonathan Keller told LifeNews. “He has chosen the accolades of abortion activists over the safety of students.“

“Newsom ignored his own financial experts. He ignored the wisdom of a two-term governor from his own party. He ignored university officials who didn’t want to bear the liability and cost of on-campus abortions,” Keller said. “Sadly, it appears Governor Newsom’s commitment to discredited groups like Planned Parenthood overruled legitimate concerns about turning America’s largest higher education system into a chemical abortion network.”

“This is a bizarre, ideologically -motivated measure that both the State Department of Finance and the State Colleges and Universities themselves did not want to see enacted.” said Brian Johnston, Chairman of California ProLife Council.

“Aside form the obvious dangers to these vulnerable students and their unborn children, (the drugs can only be taken after the mom has missed her second period), this measure is destructive of the institutions it wishes to use.”

Randy Thomasson, president of SaveCalifornia.com, a leading family issues organization promoting moral virtues for the common good, has issued the following statement:

“It’s sad how these drugs causing abortions have severe side effects and can also cause life-threatening complications, something university clinics are not set up to supervise. With chemical abortions, would-be mommies are turned into novice abortionists. Women always suffer and babies always perish.”

Under SB 24, it is estimated that 6,000 medication abortions (500 a month) could occur yearly at California public universities. The Senate Health Committee’s April 1, 2019 analysis included the statement of Democrat Connie Leyva, the main author of SB 24, that “up to 500 public university students currently must leave campus each month to access medication abortion.”

ACTION: Contact Gov. Gavin Newsom to complain.