This article first appeared in the July 12, 2022 flipbook.

When deciding where to apply for college, high school senior Sarah Warren said she considered applying to UT, but concerns for autonomy over her body in Texas made her decide against it.  

“I was considering it, especially since the Austin area is pretty left wing,” Warren said. “But I was still in my head. I was still going against applying to (UT), and when Roe v. Wade was overturned, it sort of proved to me that the cities don’t really have much power to stop the states.”   

After working in high school to earn a perfect ACT score, a 3.99 GPA and having seven Advanced Placement classes on her transcript, Warren said she hoped to attend a university with a highly ranked aerospace engineering program, such as UT. Warren is from Richardsville, Kentucky, and is looking to go to college out of state, specifically in a state with legal access to abortion. However, the procedure is not legal in Texas.

On June 24, the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a court decision that protected abortion access for nearly 50 years. Incoming college students, like Warren, and their parents say the ruling has left them with another factor to consider when deciding where to go to college: whether their child will have access to abortions, since the laws now vary state by state.

As a transgender female without a uterus, Warren said the new court decision does not immediately affect her, but the decision is paving the way for lawmakers to take away more human rights.  

“My peak concern is that my own ability to medically transition will be impeded by (a) right-wing legislature because Texas (lawmakers have) been saying a lot of things (about) restricting transitions for children,” Warren said. “The possibility of being sort of trapped in a state where (transitioning) is not legal at all is honestly pretty scary.”  

Austin resident Melanie McMichael said the overturn of Roe v. Wade “sealed the deal” for her to send her son, who is a senior in high school, to college out of state.

 “He can’t get pregnant, but he sure can get someone pregnant,” McMichael said. “We want to send our tuition dollars to a state that recognizes the entire personhood of a woman, that doesn’t relegate women to second-class citizens.”  

The Daily Texan asked Kathleen Harrison, assistant director of Marketing and Communications at UT, for a statement on how UT will remain a desirable school for out-of-state students who would lose reproductive rights by coming to Texas. 

“The University is focused on increasing its impact by continuing to provide an exceptional, affordable education through innovative teaching and learning and preparing students for a dynamic future,” Harrison said. 

Sara Goldrick-Rab is the founder of The Hope Center, which researches ways to make higher education more equitable, at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Goldrick-Rab said after the overturn of Roe v. Wade, students may be less likely to attend or successfully attend UT “because their health and finances are now additionally compromised.” 

“Its effects are difficult to estimate, but no doubt undergirded the rise of women in higher education,” Goldrick-Rab said in a written statement. “With access to lawful and relatively inexpensive abortions, women were more able to control the direction of their lives.” 

Warren said when deciding where to apply to college, UT’s cost of attendance and living was appealing, but the price was not as much of a determining factor as access to healthcare was. 

“The only significant turnoff to a couple of those schools (in red states) is the possibility of not being able to receive health care,” Warren said. “While it kind of hurts to take (UT) off the list, I still have other options.”