Content warning: This article includes mention of suicide.
In the same week as President Donald Trump’s inauguration, Georgetown hosted its annual Cardinal O’Connor Conference, the largest student-run, anti-abortion conference in the United States. After the Dobbs decision and increasing state bans on abortion, an ultra-conservative majority now controls the federal government. It is thus all the more critical that Georgetown’s Student Health Center provides accessible contraceptive and gender-affirming care to its students.
Contraceptive healthcare provides students access to birth control, Plan B, condoms, and dental dams. Gender-affirming and gender-inclusive healthcare refers to a range of medical, social, and psychological interventions dedicated to providing support and care that affirms an individual’s gender identity. Lack of access to this medically necessary care can be extremely harmful to transgender, nonbinary, and gender non-conforming students. The mental health consequences caused by limited access to gender-affirming healthcare, such as gender dysphoria and depression, are extremely severe and contribute to the national epidemic of LGBTQ+ youth suicide.
Georgetown’s Student Health Center does not prescribe birth control or other hormonal medicines, such as the morning-after pill, solely for the purpose of contraception. They do not offer gender-affirming care for any reason. MedStar Georgetown University Hospital also does not fill prescriptions for birth control for contraceptive purposes.
The university healthcare plan, which is required unless a student has a qualifying personal plan to waive it, covers contraception and gender-affirming healthcare in compliance with relevant laws, but students must seek these services off-campus, often at a greater cost.
Georgetown must provide contraceptive and gender-affirming healthcare. This service would not only grant students the life-saving right to govern their own bodies but would also ensure their gender identity and medically necessary care are not threatened by federal policies or religious condemnation.
For many on the Hilltop, the on-campus Student Health Center is the most accessible healthcare provider because of its location and acceptance of the university-provided Premier Plan health insurance. Students with the Premier Plan only pay a $10 copayment when visiting the Student Health Center. The next most affordable option would be in-network providers, typically other MedStar locations, with a $25 copayment. For all other out-of-network providers, the copayments and overall costs that students incur can be expensive and therefore inaccessible for many.
Students who rely on Georgetown’s health insurance—often due to financial necessity—are left with few options. Off-campus care is costly and logistically challenging, disproportionately impacting low-income and international students. Taking courses while also participating in extracurricular activities and working makes it difficult for students to go off campus to receive medical care. Lack of time, as well as insufficient public transportation in the Georgetown area, creates barriers in addition to the high costs of off-campus care for students.
Furthermore, knowing where to find contraceptive and gender-affirming healthcare outside of Georgetown can be extremely challenging and confusing for young people. Some of these students may also be unable to turn to their parents or other family members because of the intimate nature of reproductive health and gender identity.
Campus healthcare is meant to be accessible and convenient for students of all socioeconomic backgrounds—this is reflected in MedStar’s stated “patient-first philosophy that combines care, compassion, and clinical excellence.” Georgetown must work to make this mission a reality.
While Jesuit universities across the country broadly align with Georgetown’s policies, many peer universities provide students access to contraception and gender-affirming healthcare, including Harvard, Columbia, Boston University, Stanford, and the entire University of California system.
We believe that a university has a responsibility to care for all its students—including those who require accessible contraceptive and gender-affirming care. Georgetown cannot let its Jesuit identity interfere with that responsibility. The School of Health’s mission includes a commitment “to advance health equity,” and thus it “profoundly rejects racism, faith-based persecution, sexism and gender discrimination, ageism, homophobia, ableism, xenophobia, and transphobia.” We believe that denying students access to contraception and gender-affirming care within the campus they live in is, by definition, discriminating on the basis of gender and sexual identity. Georgetown cannot claim to value the whole person if it denies members of our community care.
Georgetown students have access to some resources on campus, including from H*yas for Choice (HFC), a student organization unrecognized by the university due to its provision of contraceptive care. They offer a variety of contraceptives as well as education on STI prevention, birth control, condoms, and referrals to local abortion providers.
HFC is undoubtedly a vital resource for Georgetown students—students at some other Jesuit institutions lack their own HFC equivalents—but it should not be the duty of an independent, volunteer-based student group to wholly and critically provide for the sexual health of the student body.
Instead of hosting anti-abortion conferences that promote homophobia, Georgetown must live up to its basic responsibilities of caring for its students. As protections in students’ home states erode amid Trump’s increasing threats to BIPOC, women, and LGBTQ+ and gender non-conforming people, Georgetown must act. Georgetown’s Student Health Center must provide accessible contraceptive and gender-affirming care for all students.
The editorial board is the official opinion of The Georgetown Voice. The board’s editorials reflect the majority opinion of the board’s members, who are listed on the masthead. The editorial board strives to provide an independent view on issues pertinent to Georgetown University and the broader D.C. community, based on a set of progressive institutional values including anti-racism, trauma-informed reporting, and empathetic and considerate journalism. The editorial board operates independently of the Voice’s newsroom and the General Board.
