Tufts Health Service has begun to provide medication abortions, a method for terminating pregnancies up to 11 weeks.
“Essentially, medication abortion is the process of using … two different medications to end the pregnancy,” Dr. Marie Caggiano, medical director of Tufts Health Service, said. “Medication abortion is very, very safe and effective … up to [the] first trimester [of a] pregnancy.”
Caggiano explained that the medication abortion procedure involves two different drugs. The first medication, called mifepristone, blocks the hormone progesterone and prevents a pregnancy from continuing to grow inside the uterus. The second medication, called misoprostol, prompts the uterus to then expel the pregnancy. According to Caggiano, after taking misoprostol, side effects typically include cramps and bleeding that can last for several days until the pregnancy has terminated. Once both drugs have been taken, Tufts Health Service will check in with the individual to ensure that the process went as expected and that their pregnancy has indeed ended.
Caggiano emphasized the privacy measures that are in place for students, particularly those who have insurance from states where abortion has been restricted.
“Getting the abortion in Massachusetts is still legal, even if your health plan is in Texas, and there are ways that we can work with the student and the insurance company to try to minimize the risk of an accidental disclosure,” she said.
She further explained that all services provided at Health Service remain confidential.
“For students who received care at the Health Service, we’re not sending out any information, nor do we bill insurance. So for your visit at the Health Service and medications that we give you at the Health Service, there isn’t anything sort of leaving the Health Service that could indicate what service a person was receiving here,” she said.
The addition of abortion services has sparked widespread support among the student body. Ashton Gerber, social media coordinator for Tufts’ Sex Health Representatives, discussed a sense of excitement among students.
“The [Instagram] post we made [about Health Service offering medication abortion] is one of, if not our most successful post of all time. We had a hugely positive response to that post,” Gerber, who uses he and they pronouns, said.
Abortion services are available at no additional cost to all students who have paid Tufts’ mandatory Health and Wellness fee, which is $1,162 for the 2024-25 academic year. Gerber highlighted the importance of this accessibility.
“I think that’s why it is very exciting. Not only that they’re offering this care, but that’s covered in the [Health and Wellness Fee], which is such a key point of accessibility, particularly for undergraduate students. You don’t even have to think about what your insurance is going to do with this information,” they said.
Tufts offers comprehensive support for students deciding whether a medication abortion is right for them and for those who have taken the medications. Alexandra Donovan, director of the Center for Awareness, Resources and Education, discussed the resources available to students.
“We are working in conjunction with health services and, more specifically, there are three sex health consultants that consult with CARE and go back and forth between [CARE and Health Services]. They are medical practitioners within health services, but they are on our website and are considered part of the CARE team,” she said.
In addition to emotional support, CARE offers mental health resources and confidential spaces for students to process the decision of getting an abortion.
“While I’m thrilled we have these medical options, there’s still a huge emotional component that comes with it, and we’re here for that,” Donovan said.
Students can schedule meetings with Donovan or other CARE team members through their website. For students seeking to get help anonymously, CARE offers virtual meetings with the option to use a pseudonym or communicate via chat with your camera off.
Beyond emotional and medical care, Caggiano stressed that students undergoing abortions also have access to academic and residential support from the university.
“We have Student Support Services, so that is part of the Dean of Students Office, but they really focus on supporting students through a variety of situations, medical situations being one of them. A student can access those services without needing to even share why,” Caggiano said.
Residential Life also provides assistance for on-campus students undergoing the medication abortion process.
“If we needed to move a student into a health space for a few days while the process is ongoing, we can do that. We don’t have to share the reason. It would just be ‘having a medical procedure, needs a private room with a bathroom,’” Caggiano explained.
By offering medication abortions on campus, Tufts Health Service also seeks to alleviate pressure on local abortion providers experiencing increased demand from out-of-state patients in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision.
“We have students who come from all over this country and also international students. Access may look very different somewhere else, and we felt like by offering [medication abortion] here, we may be offloading some centers that provide abortion, like Planned Parenthoods and other places who might need to be seeing more folks traveling from out of state,” Caggiano said.
Donovan highlighted the commitment to making sure students can safely access abortion care in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
“With the Supreme Court decision, it was just very clear that this was something that was very, very important to those of us in [Massachusetts]. … Making sure that [abortion is] safe, that it is something that all the staff that are providing it have been trained in … was a mission for all of us in health and wellness,” she said.
