YALE: Take Action for Reproductive Justice
Yale University
.jpg)
On October 6th, graduate, undergraduate, medical and law students across the country will be protesting attacks on transgender rights and access to abortion. We are joining over 45 other schools in 25 states participating in the Day of Action, including Caltech, University of Texas - Austin, MIT, University of Florida, Stanford University, University of Missouri, Harvard Law School, University of Arkansas, and many more in blue and red states alike. This event is being coordinated by a nationwide network of organizers called the Graduate Student Action Network (GSAN, @GradAction) in collaboration with the Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA).
We demand:
REPRODUCTIVE HEALTHCARE FOR FREE, FOR EVERYONE
We demand that Yale Basic (healthcare for all Yale students) provide/cover:
Contraceptive/abortion care:
-Provide abortion pills
-Cover ALL birth control costs and guarantee $0 copays (including coverage for non-oral contraceptives)
-Cover ALL IUD costs
-Provide free pregnancy tests
-Cover costs for abortion procedures (not just referrals)
Gender-affirming/LGBTQ+ healthcare:
-Cover hormone replacement therapy (HRT) costs
-Guarantee a maximum wait time of 4 months for HRT requests through Yale Health
-End the counselor letter model for HRT and move to informed consent model
-End the reimbursement model for gender-affirming care and move to up-front coverage for all
We demand that Yale Mental Health & Counseling:
-Reduce wait times to a maximum of 2 weeks
-Hire more LGBTQ+ counselors/therapists
We demand that Yale University:
-Meet with student organizers to make a plan for financially supporting abortion funds in states that have passed abortion bans
Sponsored by
To:
Yale University
From:
[Your Name]
The Yale University endowment currently sits at over $42 billion, and yet thousands of its students go every day without access to contraceptives, abortions, and gender-affirming healthcare. As abortion bans and anti-trans bills sweep the nation, many Yale students' home states are threatened by restrictive, oppressive, and dangerous legislation. These bills come after the anti-democratic overturning of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court, of which Yale has had direct ties to via its silence during the appointment of Brett Kavanaugh in 2018, despite student protests predicting that his appointment would lead to the overturning of Roe.
Reproductive rights have now been dialed back by over 50 years. But students will unite, fight, and win for reproductive justice, not just at Yale but across the country.
We stand in solidarity with students in states experiencing abortion bans. We demand free, accessible, and safe abortion on demand for free, for all.
Specifically, we demand:
Contraceptive/abortion care:
-Provide abortion pills
-Cover ALL birth control costs and guarantee $0 copays (including coverage for non-oral contraceptives)
-Cover ALL IUD costs
-Provide free pregnancy tests
-Cover costs for abortion procedures (not just referrals)
Gender-affirming/LGBTQ+ healthcare:
-Cover hormone replacement therapy (HRT) costs
-Guarantee a maximum wait time of 4 months for HRT requests through Yale Health
-End the counselor letter model for HRT and move to informed consent model
-End the reimbursement model for gender-affirming care and move to up-front coverage for all
We demand that Yale Mental Health & Counseling:
-Reduce wait times to a maximum of 2 weeks
-Hire more LGBTQ+ counselors/therapists
We demand that Yale University:
-Meet with student organizers to make a plan for financially supporting abortion funds in states that have passed abortion bans
We demand reproductive justice now!