Morning-after pill available in campus vending machines

Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania is making Internet waves as it puts the ‘morning-after pill’ into the university health center’s vending machine.

The move is sure to ruffle some conservative feathers. Shippensburg, a public university in central Pennsylvania, now offers the so-called ‘morning-after pill,’ also known and sold by the trade name Plan B, through a vending machine at the university’s health center.

The Etter Health Center provides the Plan B One Step emergency contraceptive along with condoms, decongestants and pregnancy tests. The pill is available without a prescription to anyone 17 and older, and since no student at Shippensburg is younger than 17, the school is not liable to break any laws by offering Plan B via the vending route. The vending machine is in a private room at the health center, and the center is not accessible to outsiders. No one can simply walk off the street and into the health center to use its facilities.

“Students proceed to a check-in desk located in the lobby and after checking in are granted access to the treatment area," university spokesman Peter Gigliotti said.

The machine was installed at the urging of the Student Association, which had conducted a survey of the students, 85% of whom supported making Plan B available.

Plan B reduces the chance of pregnancy by up to 89% if taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex. It is most effective if taken within the first 24 hours.

The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy approves of the service, provided that the facilities are supervised around the clock. “If the health center is manned 24/7, that sounds like it's a sufficient protection,” said Jessica Sheets Pika, a spokeswoman for the organization. “But if there's a chance that people under 17 are able to access it, that's a problem," she added.

The drug is not subsidized by the school and its price is set by the school’s cost to the dispensing pharmacy. The pill’s availability via a school vending machine is certainly rare, if not unprecedented.

Plan B is an emergency contraceptive which works by disrupting the process of fertilization and/or implantation. The controversy surrounding drugs such as Plan B revolves around the debate whether they should even be considered contraceptive; some feel they are rather contragestive – agents that prevent the implantation of an already existing embryo, although studies suggest this is unlikely.

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