Following the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, Oklahoma revived a law that made abortion illegal except when it is “necessary to preserve” the life of the pregnant person. A year and a half later, NYU announced they were opening a study away site in Tulsa, the state’s second-most-populous city.
Despite NYU’s comprehensive reproductive health resources, the university has failed to make note of Oklahoma’s abortion ban during the site’s excessive promotion, leaving students in the dark about whether or not their right to choose will be supported if they enroll at its Tulsa program. This needs to change.
There is no doubt that NYU has great reproductive resources for students on its main campus. The Student Health Center provides robust gynecological care and has a clear commitment to providing access to health care. The university maintains five emergency contraceptive vending machines on campus, with the Kimmel Center for University Life and all residence halls handing out condoms and other sexual health products for free. Abortions are also fully covered by NYU-provided health insurance, and the SHC has been stocking abortion pills since last fall.
“The university is committed to assisting students — regardless of where they’re studying — obtain the healthcare they need,” NYU spokesperson John Beckman said in a statement to WSN.
A vague response to such a complex issue underscores the university’s lack of thought or consideration toward what is effectively a reproductive health care crisis in Oklahoma.
Oklahoma is one of the most conservative states when it comes to its abortion policies. Though NYU is choosing to promote Tulsa’s historical significance as culturally rich and diverse, the choice to open a study away site there doesn’t align with the university’s proclaimed support for reproductive health care.
According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, the highest rate of unintended pregnancy in the United States is among women between the ages of 20 and 24. This fact makes it especially important for universities to provide abortion care for their students as they are the main demographic susceptible to unwanted pregnancy.
In today’s post-Roe world, it is admirable that NYU has taken such charge in providing necessary reproductive health care for its students. However, the university seems to have forgotten about how these resources will be available for Oklahoma students, if at all.
According to a press release last month, NYU Tulsa is opening this spring to host the first cohort of 20 students in its academic center, hoping to grow to about 40 to 50 students per semester. The newly established study away site has been widely promoted to students, with a large advertisement on the front of the Student Link Center, targeted social media advertisements and a series of ambassadors promoting the program using Instagram reels.
Oklahoma’s reproductive health care — quite frankly — is disastrous. In 2023, a woman filed a complaint with the Department of Health and Human Services, alleging that she was denied a necessary abortion on her cancerous molar pregnancy because the doctors could not legally perform the procedure unless she was on the verge of a heart attack. The U.S. government rejected the complaint, saying the Oklahoma hospital “did not violate federal law.”
Abortion pills are a common and affordable loophole to access the procedure, but the distribution of these pills is also illegal in Oklahoma. This leaves students with little to no options for terminating a pregnancy.
According to Planned Parenthood’s abortion access map, the closest abortion provider to Tulsa is 113 miles away in Kansas. Any student at NYU Tulsa seeking to terminate a pregnancy would not only have to travel out of state to do so, but would need to pay high costs of transportation and potentially hotels, endure very long wait times and miss their classes. They are left to navigate this long, expensive and uncertain process on their own. Not all students have the financial resources or familial support needed to reach an abortion clinic.
NYU has made their commitment to reproductive justice clear on their main campus, and this stance shouldn’t be limited to states where abortion is legal. In fact, the university should support their students even more fiercely in states where abortion is illegal and should be verbal about it. Laying out plans for how they will support students in restrictive states and assist with transport services and costs would fix this problem.
At the very least, NYU shouldn’t neglect talking about archaic abortion restrictions in their promotions of the new study away site. It is irresponsible to promote Tulsa without bringing up the reality of reproductive healthcare in the state, which could be a deciding factor in a student’s choice to study there.
WSN’s Opinion section strives to publish ideas worth discussing. The views presented in the Opinion section are solely the views of the writer.
Contact Alexa Donovan at [email protected].
