That’s slightly different than what the question was asking, at least from my point of view.
“Do universities provide comprehensive pregnancy care in their health centers” is different than “Do the mandatory student health insurance plans include pregnancy care?”
While the latter likely does include pregnancy care, that does not mean that the student would be getting all of the prenatal care at the on campus student health clinic. Nor would it mean that the student would be giving birth at the student health clinic, of course.
At some colleges, the on campus student health clinic is staffed by a PA or NP, who would likely have a family practice sort of focus instead of OB.
I do not believe student health clinics on most campuses serve as much more than aimited urgent care center. They would not have specialists of any kind-allergists, dermatologists, ENT, whatever-at the clinic. I expect students needing specialist care for any reason ( including ob/gyn, tho maybe a GP can handle it if an uncomplicated pregnancy) make arrangements for their transport, or the school does it for a fee.
A family member attended a school not allowing cars but needed frequent rides to his neurologist seizure care. They worked it out.
Seems highly unlikely there will be a critcal mass of such students.
For our kids, specific states’ abortion laws are unlikely to be a factor in the decision making process for college. I have 2 DDs and have already been telling them (well before all of the Supreme Court stuff happened this week) that they will need to take charge of their own reproductive health and not rely on their partner to do the birth control thing. Double up on birth control. Always.
I’ve also advised my teenage DDs that reproductive health is a lot more than preventing oneself from getting pregnant when you’re not ready for pregnancy. There are STDs to consider as well. Some STDs can be a really really big deal and can be life altering. I’m talking about you, HIV. And let’s not forget about the antibiotic resistant strain of gonorrhea that’s reared its ugly head. We also got our DDs vaccinated for HPV when they were old enough to get vaccinated.
In the grand scheme of things, in MY opinion, this is a general health topic that each family should decide for themselves. Many HS kids headed off to college, for example, have additional health issues to consider…it’s not just about abortion. It might seem like that right now given what’s going on in the political spectrum.
For example:
If your kid has problems with anxiety, ADHD, etc. and currently sees a psychiatrist, will there be available psychiatrists who are ‘in network’ for your health plan in the college’s general area?
Does your kid have severe food allergies (i.e., requires Epipen) and they’re going to live in the on campus dorms? Will the dining hall options be able to accommodate your kid’s food allergies?
Does your kid have some sort of chronic illness which will require regular doctor visits with a local physician? Are there specialists in that college’s general area which are in network for your health plan?
How far away is the nearest urgent care & emergency room and how hard would it be for your kid to get there if he/she needed urgent care or an ER?
Are there ‘in network’ pharmacies nearby (i.e., walking or biking distance or easy to get to on a short bus ride) to the college?
For our family, there’s also the cost factor. It’s simple…it’s totally unaffordable for our kids to go to college in a high cost of living state like CA, NY, NJ, Massachusetts, etc. We cannot afford something insane like $65,000/year for college. Forget it…I don’t care WHAT the state abortion laws are like there, it’s simply unaffordable.
For our family, the abortion law topic is not a “this is our hill to die on” decision-making factor because there are bigger factors that come into play.
Agreed that there are a multitude of factors to consider. I discouraged D from a few schools due to the high crime rate on campus and the surrounding area.
Many women have complications during pregnancy. Life threatening ones. While states make exceptions, you do not want a doctor taking precious time trying to decide if your daughter is in grave danger enough that they can help her. Maternal death rates were rising even before this.
They did not get to my sister in time, but if they had, I choose her life every time.
I am fortunate, I live in a state that protects women’s health, and I am doubly fortunate that my kid will be enrolling in a college in another state that protects women’s health. In a country with somewhere in the neighborhood of 4,000 colleges, there is absolutely no way I would allow my child (or pay for my child) to attend a school in a state where their health and reproductive rights are not protected.
If you live in a state where your health is not protected but cannot afford to pay out of state tuition, then obviously that calculation becomes much more difficult. This is exactly how the overturning of Roe will impact those with fewer economic resources more than the well off.
The number 1 cause of accidents and death among college students are alcohol related. Suicide is also a high risk as is homicide. So choose a college that does not have a party school, alcohol soaked culture. Look for mental health services and a low violent crime rate in the area.
From personal experience, choose a college that has access to a major medical center for the best care if your college student develops a serious illness. Ds friend got a brain tumor in a town without a major medical center. It was passed off as a headache until she got home and got better treatment.
I’d say these are major factors in protecting the life and health of your college student.
When our kids (who have known chronic health conditions) were accepted to their U, we talked with each U about how they would handle frequent and prolonged absences (as both kids were plagued with them, including thru HS). One of the Us told us our kid(s) would likely be asked to withdraw from the U and lose merit awards, dorm & everything else. The other U said they’d work with student and family and have had other students with similar issues succeed at their U. Of course we chose the supportive U.
One other thing we liked about the chosen U is they have a free shuttle from the campus most undergrads attend to their med school campus .
They also encouraged us to make medical appts with sone of their internists at the med school, so the kids could get care if services beyond the simple 1st aid type student health center issues were desired.
yep, I took Rice off the list (though a reach obviously) even though it sounded like a possible fit for my S. No Texas for us right now, even though I went to grad school there. It’s bonkers now.
This whole thing is outrageous. In terms of the college angle, most of these people making the decisions for all of us are Harvard and Yale folks, with a Notre Dame grad in the mix. So much for elite college or law school grads having all the answers. This is unbelievable. And no offense to these schools intended. I have Yale grads in the family and a couple Harvard Law grads as friends . We are in a scary time right now.
The title of the thread is “Consider your daughter’s life and health when choosing a school”. Even if you expand that to daughter and son’s, should Rice actually be taken off the list when considering everything related to life and health?
Consider this:
Rice quite often wins the award for happiest students. Mental health is important, no?
Among the top 20 schools, I cannot think of a school in a safer environment, crime wise. Many top ranked schools like Yale, Chicago, and Penn are in areas with high crime. Rice is not.
Its residential college system is very supportive. Think of it as having the benefits of greek life without the downsides
For certain fields, such as pre-med or energy, you would be hard pressed to find anyplace with the abundance of opportunities that Rice provides
I know it’s easy to get absorbed into a single issue that means much to you. But as others have pointed out, life and health is much more than one issue.
I wonder how this will affect international applications? These states are not in the majority with the rest of the world.
@hebegebe If the issue is important enough, then it is the only issue that needs to be considered. There are so many great choices for colleges, makes eliminating certain parts of the country easy if you don’t already live there.
I have to agree. Until Friday, I had never thought about these issues. I do now.
It has nothing to do with politics and it has EVERYTHING to do with my children’s health.
Abstinence etc is irrelevant to their health. Thank you very much, but we will teach our own children about abstinence. That is emphatically NOT what this is about. It is an artful dodge from the havoc that Dobbs is, even now, wreaking in fragmenting this country on a very fundamental issue.
It very much affects the recommendations I will make to our children as to where they live (whether for college, grad school, or "real life). There is no mistaking that.
Life and health can absolutely be about just one issue, and life and health could be potentially in jeopardy with just this one issue.
As a parent of potentially two D’s that may be attending grad school(s), they will NOT consider grad schools in “those” states. Not only do they not want to attend schools in “those” states, I have ZERO desire to “drop a dime” in them, whether it be in hotel, sales or any other taxes from my visitations.
We’ll all be happy at other schools. Plenty of them out there.
Taking some of these schools off of your list will not change their enrollment. For every student here who takes their name off the list there is another student waiting to get in.
I believe we all understand that we are all advocating for our loved ones to make their best choices based on info available to us. The laws affecting healthcare in states are among the options to be informed about and carefully considered.
Each of us must weigh what matters to us—for health, finances and everything that is important. Obviously each person and family must make important choices.
I don’t think anyone here is posting in the hopes that a school’s enrollment is going to go down in the future. They are just stating that, as OP asked, that yes, they will be mindful of what the reproductive laws are in states that their kids are considering.
So the composition of a school’s student body will change, but no one is saying that the enrollment will go down.
No way would my kids attend certain schools in certain states now. No way. And they are boys. But they understand the multiple ramifications that these new draconian laws mean for students.
