Where will they go, if not to college?
With its excellent academic and music programs, Oberlin College in Ohio seemed like a perfect fit for Nina Huang, a California high school student who plays flute and piano and hopes to eventually study medicine or law.
But Huang, 16, said she crossed the college off her application list after Ohio enacted a near-total ban on abortion last month. She now plans to cast a wider net for schools in states with less restrictive laws.
“I don’t want to go to school in a state where there is an abortion ban,” she said.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in June to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade case that legalized abortion nationwide has some students rethinking their higher education plans as states rush to ban or curtail abortion, according to interviews with 20 students and college advisers across the country.
While it has long been the case that some students hesitated to attend schools in places with different political leanings than their own, recent moves by conservative states on issues such as abortion and LGBTQ+ rights have deepened the country’s polarization.
For some students, the restrictions raise fears that they won’t be able to get an abortion if they need one or that they will face discrimination for gender differences. Others said they worried about facing racial prejudice or being politically ostracized.
“I’m only in high school right now, and I’m still finding out who I am,” said Samira Murad, 17, who will be a senior this fall at Stuyvesant High School in New York. “I don’t want to move somewhere I can’t be myself because of laws put in place.”
What if you finally find out who you are, and who you are is a baby killer, and you can’t kill babies?!
Why can’t America let people be who they really are?!
It is too soon to determine whether such concerns will affect admissions in a measurable way, and evidence from other recent divisive state laws suggests there may be little overall impact.
But in the wake of Roe’s overturn, college counselors said abortion has figured prominently in many conversations with clients, with some going as far as nixing their dream schools.
“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,” said Daniel Santos, chief executive of the Florida college counseling company Prepory.
Kristen Willmott, a counselor with Top Tier Admissions in Massachusetts, said students she works with have told her they are taking some top schools in Texas, Florida and Tennessee off their application lists due to their restrictive abortion laws.
Alexis Prisco, who is entering her senior year at Eastern Technical High School in Maryland, had planned to apply to her parents’ alma mater, Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.
She feels wary, however, after the state enacted a law effectively banning abortion.
“Now my mom has warned me that I need to be very careful when applying to schools in states with trigger laws,” said Prisco, 17, referring to bans designed to take effect once the Supreme Court overturned Roe.
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For Maryland high school student Sabrina Thaler, however, the prospect of attending college in a state that bans abortion is unsettling.
Thaler, 16, recalled the question she posed to her high school class during a discussion in May after the decision that ultimately overturned Roe v. Wade was leaked.
“What if I go to a college in a state where abortion is banned and I get raped and then I donβt have the option to have an abortion?“
Men don’t know. But by the time a woman graduates from college, she’s had 3-4 abortions.
Remove your uterus and ovaries, that is your really choice π
β TYTO ROMANOV β₯οΈπ²π½! π (@troman93) July 11, 2022
Basically admitting that women go to college to shut around. College in the USA is a joke
β Hank (xir/apache attack helicopter) (@Hank63737808r) July 11, 2022
ha? you r saying ppl go to college for unprotected sex?
β kaluπͺπΉ (@tesfahnksolomon) July 11, 2022
Yeah college is hard when you have to rely on birth control methods instead of abortion… It’s easier to sleaze around and just get an abortion every 3 months… How that really effects college I’m not sure…
β Andrew Cross (@DrewCross1985) July 11, 2022
Ya knowβ¦ if sex weights so much in their minds, maybe they were not really interested in learning? π€
β Luz (@LoTooky) July 11, 2022
If your going to college to learn, it shouldn’t be a problem, if your going to hoe around different answer.
β Dom Michael (@DomMichael6) July 11, 2022
If the ability to chop up and suck out your baby is part of your college plans maybe instead you should make plans for psychotherapy.
β Mr DWH (@dwh_mr) July 11, 2022