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Community colleges in California will be required to offer abortion medication through campus health centers starting in 2029, under a law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday. 

Through the Community College Student Right to Access Act, California will extend the reproductive health service already required for public universities in the state. No specific dollar amount is mentioned in the new law, only that the implementation of abortion medication at community colleges will rely on the Legislature appropriating funding.

Community colleges were left out of Senate Bill 24, a law that was signed in 2019 and took effect in 2023, requiring University of California and California State University campuses to provide on-campus abortion medication at their health centers. The new law, authored by Assemblymember Catherine Stefani, a Democrat from San Francisco, will require abortion pill access at community college campuses with existing health centers. Today, 92 out of 115 community college campuses have health centers.

“We are closing a critical gap by ensuring that community college students, one of the most diverse and economically vulnerable populations in our state, have the same access to care as their peers at four-year institutions,” Stefani said during the Assembly Health Committee hearing in April. 

Students at UC, Cal State and community college campuses on the Pro-Abortion Student Advisory Board supported the bill as part of Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity, a national advocacy and reproductive justice organization. The student board works to expand education outreach for reproductive healthcare across the state.

“The system is clearly moving towards the better,” said Angelica Campos, a San Francisco City College student and advisory board member, in response to the governor’s signature. 

Implementing the law

Medication abortion can be taken 10 to 11 weeks after the day of a person’s last period. It accounted for more than half of all U.S. abortions in 2023, according to Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy organization committed to advancing sexual and reproductive health. 

Community college health services leaders were initially concerned about implementation due to the locally controlled model of the community college system. For this reason, community college health centers do not operate in the same way as university health centers.

While the law requires community colleges with health centers to start offering abortion medication, it does not require that it happens on campus, unlike the law for UC and Cal State campuses. Instead, community colleges have multiple options. They can prescribe the medication onsite via a licensed provider on staff or telehealth. The health center can utilize partnerships with an offsite provider who can prescribe abortion medication. Or they can offer a “warm handoff” directing students to resources off campus, with follow-up care on their campus. Implementation cost will depend on the model community colleges choose to adopt. 

Some community colleges, like El Camino College in Torrance, already have a “robust” healthcare system, according to Susan Nilles, faculty coordinator of El Camino College Student Health Services and a nurse practitioner. While the campus doesn’t currently offer abortion medication, Nilles said she does not anticipate challenges to comply with the law. 

“We’re fortunate enough to where we can handle something like this. It’s nice to know that legally, we’re backed,” Nilles said. 

College of the Redwoods, located in the Northern California coastal city of Eureka, is one of the 23 community college campuses in the state without an on-campus health center. That campus relies on telehealth services, community partnerships and referrals to local healthcare organizations. Students can currently access medication abortion services through referrals from their telehealth provider, TimelyCare.

Stephanie Freyermuth, manager of Basic Needs, Housing Insecurity & Wellness at the college, said due to campus size, rural location and lack of medical community resources, she does not believe College of the Redwoods will adopt in-person services, including abortion medication, in the immediate future.

Dr. Rosafel A. Nogra, who serves as director of De Anza College’s Student Health Services in Cupertino, said the law is an opportunity to expand their health center’s reproductive healthcare. The campus doesn’t offer abortion medication onsite currently. Instead, it offers services through the Family Planning, Access, Care and Treatment Program provider that offers confidential reproductive health services at no cost to students who meet certain requirements. 

Service costs may vary among colleges

The previous law requiring medication abortion services at public universities established the College Student Health Center Sexual and Reproductive Health Preparation Fund with private funds, which provided a $200,000 grant to each campus student health center to implement services. Community colleges were left out of that law because there was not enough capacity to extend funding to them all, Connie Leyva, a former Democratic state senator from Chino and the author of that bill, told CalMatters in a phone interview.  

The cost for abortion medication at UC and Cal State campuses varies. Some Cal State campuses give it to students for free. For UC students, medication costs are covered by the required on-campus UC Student Health Insurance Plan. 

Cal Poly Humboldt’s costs are free due to grant funding from the California Commission on the Status of Women and Girls, while Sonoma State covers the cost with mandatory student health fees and part of the implementation funding. Cal State San Marcos charges students $20 to $28 for the prescription. 

Sonoma State listed its cost as $50 on its health center website, but Tim Grace, director of the student health center, told CalMatters in an email that it was free. After CalMatters asked about the cost, the college confirmed the medication is free and the website was updated. 

The cost for abortion medication at community colleges will depend on how much the Legislature appropriates in the state budget for 2029 and may vary among campuses.

Bringing awareness to students

The law will require all campuses, both community colleges and universities, to inform students that abortion medication services are offered at their health centers. This was another component left out of the previous law.

Four years after she left office, Leyva said that she still receives calls from people frustrated by the lack of advertising about reproductive health services on campuses.

“That part of the bill is tangible and I think that can make a big difference for a lot of young women,” said Leyva, who is now the executive director for KVCR public media in San Bernardino.

The new law will require all campuses to post about medication abortion availability on their websites. Currently, all UC campuses have abortion medication listed on their websites. All Cal State campuses have it on their websites except Chico State, which does not explicitly mention abortion medication and instead highlights birth control and “comprehensive care tailored to specific gender-related health needs” for men and women. Chico State Media Relations Coordinator Michael Drummond said the school will comply with the awareness requirements outlined in the law.

Cal Poly Humboldt student Kaylee Luna works as the Sex, Health and Body Educator at the Women’s Resource Center at her university. Luna connects students to sexual health and reproductive resources on campus. While she was aware abortion medication was provided on campus, she didn’t know it was free until she researched it for her job. From her personal perspective, she feels abortion medication and reproductive resources aren’t talked about enough.

“I don’t think that students on campus are really aware of that. I mean, no one’s really talking about it or, you know, making [social media] posts or flyers,” Luna said. “I feel like it is still a touchy subject for some folks but I don’t think there’s much awareness and I think there should be.”

Faith Chinnapong says in her work alongside college students as a California-based organizer for Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity, she sees the knowledge gap across campuses. 

“It’s common to meet a student who is completely unaware of the services on her own campus,” Chinnapong said. “When campuses especially are in these rural areas, it makes it more difficult for these young people to be able to go and seek these services, especially when they’re working multiple jobs and taking care of their family.”

Students like Campos working on the Pro-Abortion Student Advisory Board have heard student concerns first-hand. According to her, access can make all the difference, and going offsite can be a deterrent for some seeking care.

“Comfort is really important, and I think students sometimes feel more safe going to somewhere they’re more familiar with, and oftentimes that’s campus,” Campos said.

Moving forward 

The new law won’t take effect for more than two years, and only upon appropriation of funds by the state Legislature.

“Even if we’re not gonna see the changes potentially overnight, it’s really good that we’re here doing the foundational work,” Campos said.

Now, groups like Pro-Abortion Student Advisory Board will work towards bringing more awareness about the law to students and campus health centers. 

“Students should have the option to whatever they choose to decide on how to care for their bodies and having that access would just make it all the better on campus,” said Vanetta Godinez, a San Diego City College student and board member.

Noelle Doblado and Skylar Stock are contributors with the College Journalism Network, a collaboration between CalMatters and student journalists from across California. CalMatters higher education coverage is supported by a grant from the College Futures Foundation.

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This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for its newsletters.

Even with an El Niño winter looming and memories of flooding still fresh, Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill aimed at shoring up the Delta’s aging levees and protecting the region and vital water infrastructure from flooding and sinking land. 

In his veto message, Newsom said the more than $170 million for repairing levees, aqueducts and canals and other projects already included in the state budget made the measure redundant. 

“While well-intentioned,” Newsom said, “this bill is unnecessary.” 

But the state’s own data shows that this funding is nowhere close to what’s needed to protect the Delta, both as a region and as the heart of the state’s water supply. 

A $3.3 billion repair job

A network of 1,100 miles of federal and non-federal levees lines Delta waterways and protects the region from flooding. Many of these aging levees do not meet current “construction standards and could fail at water levels well below the top of the levee,” the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said in 2018. 

The price tag for fixing them: roughly $3.3 billion, according to the state’s Delta Stewardship Council. Not fixing them could cost far more: “$22 billion in assets and over $5 billion in annual economic activity could be … exposed to flooding in 2085 if improvements are not made.” 

State Sen. Jerry McNerney, a Democrat from Stockton, wanted to create a $300 million annual repair fund for these aging levees, including from proceeds generated by the state’s embattled carbon market. The Delta Caucus secured a little over half that this year in the state budget. The bill eventually dropped the larger funding number. 

The state has spent hundreds of millions already, including at least $400 million by the Department of Water Resources, according to a bill analysis.  

The fund also would have paid to repair the massive water delivery system that pumps Northern California river water south through the Delta, supplying two-thirds of the state’s population and vast tracts of Central Valley farmland. 

Sinking land threatens water deliveries

Groundwater overuse is damaging this system, including the California aqueduct and other vital canals, by causing the land around it to sink. A state report found the damage could cut water deliveries by almost 90% in the next 17 years. The California Department of Water Resources estimates that fixing the damage, both past and future, could cost nearly $4 billion. 

The bill passed the Legislature unanimously,  with no votes against and five members not voting. It drew overwhelming support from water agencies and local governments across the state, as well as environmental and business groups — who often find themselves on opposing sides of legislation. 

The California Central Valley Flood Control Association, however, urged Newsom in a letter to veto the bill, saying it could disrupt existing funding programs and create additional bureaucracy around already complex reimbursement processes. 

Supporters push back on veto

The bill “brought together traditional adversaries on California water issues — environmental groups and State Water Contractors, along with political leaders from both Northern and Southern California,” McNerney said in a statement. “As a result, 2026 represented (a) major step forward in the effort to safeguard the state’s primary water supply for the future.”

Restore the Delta is less sanguine. The Stockton nonprofit compared the bill to one of Newsom’s signature water projects: the Delta Conveyance Project, also known as the Delta tunnel. 

Like the bill, the tunnel is meant to shore up the state’s water delivery system against time, climate change and disaster. But the tunnel’s $20 billion price tag would go toward bypassing the Delta rather than protecting it. 

“It is [Newsom’s] white whale,” Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director at Restore the Delta, said in a statement. 

Delta advocates say money should go toward shoring up the Delta itself.

McNerney called the veto disappointing but described the amount of this year’s funding historic. 

“We’re not done,” he said in a statement after the Legislature’s budget vote earlier this month. “This historic investment is just a down payment. In the years to come, we need to continue to protect California’s primary supply of freshwater.”

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Santa Cruz’s first Porchfest brings 53 bands to 14 porches on Oct. 3. Organizer Darrow Feldstein turns front steps into stages for a free day of music and community.

Cabrillo Gallery’s La Resiliencia brings together 24 Latino/a/x artists exploring family, memory and resilience. Free exhibition through Oct. 27.

Santa Cruz County’s Open Studios returns for its 41st year with more than 350 artists, three October weekends and a new mobile app. Christina Waters explores the studios, preview exhibits and wearable art of I.B. Bayo.

Family, memory and collective strength shape Cabrillo Gallery’s LatinXperiencia 2026: La Resiliencia, bringing together 24 artists exploring what sustains us through upheaval and change.

Santa Cruz writers and artists join a chorus of resistance in Winter in America (Still, a new anthology exploring political turmoil, grief and the possibilities of community.

At Los Freseros Paleteria in Ben Lomond, Elizabeth Ramirez and Hugo Moreles serve Mexican-inspired desserts, savory snacks and warm hospitality, from concha ice cream sandwiches to fruit piled with chamoy and treats.

Evil Wings fuels downtown Santa Cruz’s late-night revival, while Mark C. Anderson makes a case for local pizza supremacy and checks in on the region’s growing vegan scene.

Adrian Belew talks King Crimson, BEAT’s dream-band chemistry and new drummer Terry Bozzio as the quartet prepares to open its final North American tour of Crimson music at the Quarry in Santa Cruz.

Another battery fire at Moss Landing has renewed fears among restaurant owners, who describe lost sales, missed emergency alerts and uncertainty about their businesses’ future.

Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here.

Public safety is strongest when it combines effective law enforcement with prevention, support and care for the community. Throughout his career, Santa Cruz mayoral candidate Ryan Coonerty has emphasized the importance of supporting first responders while also strengthening the health and human services that help people and families thrive.

As a county supervisor, Ryan supported efforts to modernize law enforcement and build stronger relationships between public safety agencies and the communities they serve, including the sheriff’s 21st-century policing initiatives. He also worked to strengthen collaboration among the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office, the Santa Cruz Police Department and community service providers.

Ryan has also recognized that not every crisis requires a law enforcement response alone. During his time on the board of supervisors, he supported bringing mental health professionals into partnership with the sheriff’s office. By connecting people experiencing a mental health crisis with trained professionals, these partnerships can help deescalate difficult situations, connect individuals with appropriate services and allow officers to focus on situations where their involvement is most needed.

From supporting programs such as the nurse-family partnership to investing in crisis intervention and community-based services, Ryan has approached public safety as part of a broader commitment to healthy, supported communities.

For Ryan, safer neighborhoods and strong human services are complementary goals — and both are important to building a stronger Santa Cruz. Ryan is the experienced leader Santa Cruz needs.

Michael Pruger

Santa Cruz

The post Letter to the editor: Ryan Coonerty has the stronger record on public safety appeared first on Lookout Santa Cruz.

Twin Temple’s Alexandra and Zachary James bring vintage rock ’n’ roll and Satanic spectacle to the Catalyst on Friday, Oct. 2.

Filling in for Brad Kava, DNA welcomes October’s creative bounty, from Open Studios to Porchfest, and invites readers to find connection through local art and music.

Readers question addiction terminology, celebrate Janus CEO Amber Williams and share a fatal DUI case update. Christina Waters responds to criticism of her music review.

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