California is the first state to require all of its public universities to provide medication abortions, marking an expansion of the option at a time when access across the country is under siege.

The medication must be made available at all 34 universities by January 2023, after governor Gavin Newsom signed the “College Student Right to Access Act” Friday.

Two public university systems — the University of California and California State University — currently do not offer abortions on campus.

“As other states and the federal government go backward, restricting reproductive freedom, in California we are moving forward, expanding access and reaffirming a woman's right [to] choose,” Mr Newsom, a Democrat, said in a statement.

He continued: “We're removing barriers to reproductive health — increasing access on college campuses and using technology to modernise how patients interact with providers.”

The new law will require an evaluation of campus health centres to determine their ability to provide medication abortions, which is a first-trimester procedure involving two pills that essentially induces an abortion.

After that, schools will be able to purchase further equipment like ultrasounds, and to train staff in the use of those machines and protocols.

The measure comes as heavily restrictive measures have been taken in several conservative states across the country.

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Those laws have taken a variety of forms, including several known as “heartbeat” bills, which would block abortions at roughly the point in a pregnancy when a heartbeat can be detected.