December 11, 2022

The Student Health Center offers sexual and reproductive health resources including contraceptives like birth control and select options like oral contraceptives and IUDs, which students can request by making an appointment with the Student Health Center. According to the executive director of the Office of Student Health and Well-Being, Jamie Shutter, pregnancy testing, referrals to MU Health Care, Care Team consultations, and a list of resources are also accessible should students need prenatal care.

Shutter also said that students who are uncertain about where to turn for sexual health care can access a list of resources through the Student Health Center and the university’s social justice centers which include the Gaines Oldham Black Culture Center, Relationship and Sexual Violence Prevention Center, MultiCultural Center, LGBTQ Resource Center and the Women’s Center.

“It really summarizes all of the different methods of contraception and where you can access them, because quite a few of them are available free on campus,” Shutter said.

MSA, working with the Student Health Center,hopes to increase conversation about the importance of implementing such initiatives and what national decisions about sexual and reproductive health like the overturning of Roe v. Wade means for students.

“Naturally, this has been a point of larger discussion around campus, with different kinds of coalitions like the Coalition for Bodily Autonomy and YDSA talking about this,” MSA Senate Speaker, senior Lane Cargile said. “So, what the MSA has done is we passed Resolution 62-11, which is to promote the importance of awareness of sexual health resources in MU students in the Columbia community.”

Cargile said the resolution, which involves the Sexual Health and Wellness Office and LGBTQ Resource Center, is meant to highlight the resources already available on campus and uncover gaps in these resources with new initiatives.

“An idea that we’ve been toying around with is hosting … something where we take some intentional time to look at campus culture and be like, we have these resources available, and these are some really cool groups we could work [with] to help amplify and provide a space for the subject matter of sexual health,”Cargile said.

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, access to abortion for Missouri residents was eliminated with a complete abortion ban that went into effect in June. The ban does not allow for a pregnant person to get an abortion unless the procedure is needed to save the person’s life or prevent serious risk to their physical health.

“Naturally, we are a public university in a red state, which puts a lot of political constraints on some of the things we can say, how we can say them, and how we can converse with this conversation in open dialogue, which maybe is unsavory and a little problematic, but unfortunately that’s where we’re at,” Cargile said.

According to the CDC, young women in their 20s make up more than half of pregnant people who received abortions (57%), a trend the Jed Foundation says indicates abortion restrictions could create obstacles for young people.

“I don’t think anything in a post Roe v. Wade world is ideal for most people,” Cargile said. “We have no power over that as students, and as helpless as that sounds, we can’t impact those decisions so we’re trying to find ways that students can … cope healthily and know what’s available.”

Cargile said open-mindedness and increased resources can promote student sexual and reproductive health.

“We have a lot of really brave students who are bringing these concerns to the administration, and the administration is being honest with the resources they can have, but sometimes honesty is just an open ear and compassion,” Cargile said. ”I would love for the university to make our systems more robust under our current structure. We are in an environment, in a culture, where those resources are politicized, and that quality of care still needs to be there in the absence of that.”

Edited by Emma Flannery | eflannery@themaneater.com
Copy edited by Kyla Pehr and Jacob Richey

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