Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, removing the constitutional right to an abortion that was in place for nearly 50 years, higher education has been confronted with a post-Roe reality.
As the vast majority of people who seek and get abortions in the country identify as women, Diverse contacted 29 women’s colleges or historical women’s colleges to hear their responses to the news.
Eleven colleges replied by press time with a statement from their president or a leadership official regarding the decision to overturn Roe in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. These colleges included Barnard College (New York), Bryn Mawr College (Pennsylvania), Cedar Crest College (Pennsylvania), Meredith College (North Carolina), Mount Holyoke College (Massachusetts), Simmons University (Massachusetts - historical women’s college), Smith College (Massachusetts), Sweet Briar College (Virginia), Trinity Washington University (Washington, D.C.), Vassar College (New York - historical women’s college), and Wellesley College (Massachusetts).
“As president of one of the largest women’s colleges in the country, I felt it was important to respond to this change in rights that have stood for nearly 50 years,” wrote Dr. Jo Allen, president of Meredith College, in a statement sent to the campus community the day of the Dobbs decision. “A ruling that defies a woman’s intellect and right to determine what happens to her own body not only delves blatantly into a woman’s privacy but also signals disrespect for her decision-making and careful weighing of all sides of that decision.”
A few days after the Dobbs decision, six presidents of the Seven Sisters wrote a letter to the New York Times that decried the ruling. These presidents were from Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke, Smith, Vassar, and Wellesley.
Marina Catallozzi, vice president of health and wellness as well as chief health officer at Barnard College, and Jennifer Rosales, vice president for inclusion and engaged learning as well as chief diversity officer at Barnard, shared that Barnard has “secured an insurance plan and coverage that includes reproductive health and pregnancy termination services.” The college is in New York, where abortion remains legal.
