The state of student activism on abortion at Texas A&M

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ADRIAN FLORIDO, HOST:

On many college campuses, the new, more restrictive legal landscape around abortion has also created confusion and sometimes fear about accessing other kinds of reproductive care - birth control, pregnancy tests, Plan B. This has been very evident in Texas, where an abortion ban took effect right after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year. On the campus of Texas A&M, a student volunteer group that provides a lot of these reproductive care services has seen its membership plummet while an anti-abortion-rights group on campus has gained momentum and financial support. NPR's Sequoia Carrillo reports.

SEQUOIA CARRILLO, BYLINE: School pride oozes from the athletic posters that dominate Nimisha Srikanth's dorm room. Three foam fingers that say Go Aggies, the school's mascot, are stacked next to her bed.

NIMISHA SRIKANTH: So A&M - my dad is an Aggie. He came here for his master's. He immigrated from India, did his master's in civil engineering. And ever since I was 9 months old, I've been coming to A&M every year. So I was born in blood maroon.

CARRILLO: But these days, among Srikanth's school memorabilia and monogrammed pillows are boxes of condoms, lube, pregnancy tests and Plan B in what she calls her pharmacy tucked under her bed.

SRIKANTH: I have a box of condoms. Then I have this miscellaneous box, where I have pads, tampons, pregnancy tests, emergency contraception fact sheet. And in this big box, I have Plan B. That is my comprehensive pharmacy.

CARRILLO: Srikanth is the president of FREE Aggies, Feminists for Reproductive Equity and Education at Texas A&M, about two hours east of Austin. They run a program that provides incognito access to emergency contraception. Even though the drop-off service started due to COVID, when the Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade last summer, the group decided to keep it up for added privacy for students.

SRIKANTH: These products are in a brown paper bag, so it just looks like a lunch sack you would take to school. Or it's something small enough you can just put inside a bag or a backpack, and nobody will know until you go home, and then you can take it out.

CARRILLO: The demand is high. The group makes at least one run per day, and the program has served hundreds of students since its inception in 2020. But it's all coming to an end this semester due to lack of involvement. When Nimisha joined FREE Aggies, there were dozens of active members. But then students just stopped showing up.

So what do the numbers look like now?

SRIKANTH: Honestly, these days, it's just the four of us.

CARRILLO: Srikanth says now there's an air of risk around reproductive health products, even though everything they pass out is completely legal. They do pass-offs in public to keep both sides safe, and the anonymity is what makes the service appealing to students.

SRIKANTH: Definitely going inside the student health center and walking to that pharmacy, picking it up, that's definitely a little bit more risky for some students.

CARRILLO: Kimberley Harris, a professor of constitutional law at Texas Tech University, says the atmosphere of secrecy permeates colleges all over the state.

KIMBERLEY HARRIS: The political climate is such that it is such a controversial topic. It is so highly charged that that'll make some people go, I don't want to be involved with that at all, whatever their personal views are.

CARRILLO: She's heard from her students in the months since Roe v. Wade was overturned and the Texas abortion ban took hold. Student behavior has changed significantly. Some students are stocking up on Plan B and hoarding birth control. And she says there's a feeling that this is just the beginning.

HARRIS: I think everyone in the country needs to pay attention to Texas. Whether you live in Alabama or California, what happens in Texas might be coming to you.

CARRILLO: On the other side of the debate, Pro-Life Aggies is thriving. It's the largest group of its kind on campus, with more than a thousand people on their email list. And students pack their weekly meetings to hear guest speakers from around the country. They give out scholarships for student parents, put on large-scale displays around campus and, of course, hand out flyers in the student center.

GRACE HOWAT: We'll have resources and pamphlets with educational topics like maybe fetal development, and also we have pamphlets for pregnancy resource centers and just everything like that on our table.

CARRILLO: Grace Howat is the president and says her group has done its best to keep the debate with abortion-rights advocates civil and respectful.

HOWAT: We've really had to make sure that we continue to be very kind towards them and understanding and that we meet them where they are and that we're able to reassure them that, you know, we do care about women as well as children and reassure them that, you know, our movement's here to protect both.

CARRILLO: Salem Smith, one of the last members of FREE Aggies, says that nevertheless, the Supreme Court ruling has made it tough for their small abortion-rights group and for students who may need help or counseling.

SALEM SMITH: In larger organizations that have always been bigger and had this momentum, it's kind of easier because you're one in a crowd. But sometimes, with these smaller organizations, it can be scary. It can be scary, especially with some of the incidents we've had in the past.

CARRILLO: Like pushback while handing out flyers, friction with the administration and even one of the former student leaders receiving harassing phone calls. So as the remaining few members of their group graduate, they'll have to wait and see if a new generation of Aggies takes up their fight.

SMITH: The spirit will live on, even if it's not under the same name, even if it's not run by the same people.

CARRILLO: For now, though, their efforts will remain in the background. This past week, Pro-Life Aggies held a big rally on campus called Memorial of the Innocents that featured over 1,000 crosses, each representing two abortions in the U.S. every day.

Sequoia Carrillo, NPR News, College Station, Texas. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.