California community colleges with campus health centers will be required to offer abortion medication starting in 2029, under a law Gov. Gavin Newsom signed on Sunday.
The measure, known as the Community College Student Right to Access Act, extends a reproductive health requirement already in force at the state’s public universities. It applies only to campuses with existing health centers, which today is 92 of the state’s 115 community college campuses.
The law names no dollar amount. Carrying it out depends on the Legislature appropriating funding.
Community colleges were left out of Senate Bill 24, a 2019 law that took effect in 2023 and required University of California and California State University campuses to provide abortion medication at their health centers. The new law was written by Assemblymember Catherine Stefani, a Democrat from San Francisco.
“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,” Ms. Stefani said at an Assembly Health Committee hearing in April.
The signing adds to a string of abortion bills Mr. Newsom has approved this month, as California widens access while federal policy moves the other way.