Medication abortion: State of information on Student Health Center websites

• Published in: Journal of American college health pp. 1 - 5
• Main Authors: Modrek, Sepideh, Wong, Mike, Kulkarni, Anagha, Holschuh, Carrie, Kakar, Venoo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 03-01-2023
• Subjects: health education; medication abortion; university student health centers; Health communication
• ISSN: 0744-8481; 1940-3208
• DOI: 10.1080/07448481.2022.2155472

To document the information on medication abortion on university Student Health Center (SHC) websites.
Four-year bachelors granting public universities' Student Health Center websites.
We conduct thematic content analysis for medication abortion-related information on 547 SHC websites in the United States as of August 2022 using computer-assisted software. We validate the software with human annotation.
Medication abortion is mentioned on 23 (4%) university SHC websites, and in 13 (57%) of these websites, it is only mentioned to exclude it from definitions of emergency contraception. Only two websites, 6% of the California public schools included in the sample, advertise medication abortion services through their SHC websites. One hundred fifteen (21%) university websites provide links to Planned Parenthood that gives information on how to navigate abortion access across all 50 states.
There is inadequate information on SHC websites regarding medication abortion services and how to access them.