AB 2540

April 1, 2026

The Honorable Catherine Stefani, Author
California State Assembly
1021 O Street, Suite 5160
Sacramento, CA 95814

Dear Assemblywoman Stefani:

On behalf of tens of thousands of constituents, allied organizations, and more than 2,000 churches across California, California Family Council strongly opposes AB 2540.

AB 2540 would expand access to chemical abortion through student health centers at California's public postsecondary institutions. While proponents frame this as a matter of reproductive access, California Family Council believes this bill raises profound moral, medical, and public health concerns that the Legislature cannot afford to dismiss. We urge members to carefully examine the full weight of what this measure would authorize.

Abortion Ends a Human Life

At its most fundamental level, abortion ends a human life. Every abortion, whether surgical or administered through medication, results in the death of an unborn child. This is not merely a religious assertion; it is a biological reality confirmed at conception. AB 2540 does not simply expand a health service on campus. It expands the taking of human life, and it does so with the institutional endorsement of California's public university system. No policy framing changes this underlying fact. California Family Council cannot support legislation that treats the destruction of preborn life as a routine component of student health care.

Chemical Abortion Carries Serious Medical Risks

Proponents of AB 2540 routinely characterize the abortion pill as safe and effective. The peer-reviewed data tells a far more troubling story. The Ethics and Public Policy Center conducted the largest-known study of the abortion pill using real-world insurance data, finding that one in ten patients experiences a serious adverse event following its use.¹ The same study documented a high failure rate requiring repeated abortion attempts, compounding both physical risk and emotional harm to women. These are not outlier findings. They represent a documented pattern of harm that campus health centers, which are not equipped as emergency medical facilities, are ill-suited to manage.

A separate peer-reviewed study published by the Charlotte Lozier Institute adds another urgent dimension to this concern. Researchers reviewing nearly 29,000 emergency room visits within 30 days of a drug-induced abortion found that nearly 84% of drug-induced abortion-related ER visits between 2016 and 2021 were miscoded as miscarriages rather than abortion complications.² ER visits after abortion drug use were 79% more likely to be miscoded as miscarriages compared to surgical abortions, and miscoded visits were 50% more likely to be classified as high acuity, meaning more severe. As Dr. James Studnicki, vice president and director of data analytics at the Charlotte Lozier Institute, stated: "When abortion-related emergencies are disguised as miscarriages, it impairs a doctor's ability to make informed, evidence-based decisions. That isn't just a documentation error, it's a public health crisis."² Distributing the abortion pill more broadly through campus health clinics, without robust follow-up infrastructure, will only deepen this crisis .

Pregnancy Centers and Adoption Deserve Equal Promotion on Campus

If the California Legislature is genuinely concerned about the health and well-being of pregnant students, it should ensure that the full range of support options receives equal or greater visibility and promotion on campus. Pregnancy resource centers across California offer no-cost medical services, material support, counseling, and ongoing care to women facing unplanned pregnancies, without the documented physical risks associated with chemical abortion. Additionally, adoption is a great option that should be promoted. According to Unplanned Good ³, research shows that when a trusted adult presents adoption as a possibility, the likelihood of a young woman choosing it increases by 50%. In 2025 Assembly man Tangipa authored a bill that would promote adoption on college campus's however it was shot down in the first hearing. Student health centers that present abortion as a primary solution, while failing to actively direct students toward these life-affirming alternatives, are not offering comprehensive care. They are offering an ideologically curated menu. California's students deserve better. They deserve to know that help, hope, and genuine support are available to them, and that they do not have to choose between their education and the life of their child.

For these reasons, California Family Council respectfully opposes AB 2540. We urge Assemblywoman Stefani and the full Legislature to reject this measure and instead invest in student health policies that protect both women and the preborn lives they carry.

Respectfully,

Greg Burt
Vice President
California Family Council

³ About Us — Unplanned Good. https://www.unplannedgood.org/about-us