Resources Update Following Supreme Court Abortion Ruling

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Coverage is available to employees and students who have to travel for legal care.

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A snowy pine tree outside a Dartmouth dorm building

(Photo by Katie Lenhart)

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Dartmouth is taking this opportunity to clarify the availability of funds for legal reproductive health care and for travel to obtain such health care.

In this year’s U.S. Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the court ruled that it is up to individual states to decide whether to allow abortions, restrict them, or to ban them entirely. Abortion remains legal in New Hampshire, with some restrictions, and Dartmouth’s student and employee medical plans cover abortion. 

For Students

Dartmouth’s existing barrier removal process allows undergraduate, graduate, and professional school students to request financial support for medical services, including abortion services, that might otherwise be out of their economic reach. 

As of Jan. 1, 2023, students may use the barrier removal process to seek reimbursement for travel to obtain medical services that are unavailable within 100 miles of the student’s primary residence, as long as those services are obtained from one of the closest qualified medical providers legally able to provide that service.

Dartmouth will provide financial support for abortion services or travel to obtain those services only if those funds are used to obtain a legal abortion occurring entirely outside any location in which the abortion is illegal.

For Employees

Through Dartmouth’s employee medical plans beginning Jan. 1, 2023, employees and their dependents will receive reimbursement for allowable expenses related to travel necessary to obtain medical and behavioral services where access is unavailable within 100 miles of their primary residence and where the services are obtained from one of the closest qualified in-network medical providers legally able to provide that service, up to a lifetime maximum of $10,000. 

For assistance, students can contact the Dartmouth Financial Aid Office, and employees are encouraged to contact Human Resources.

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