College Offers Birth Control Via Vending Machine

COMMENTARY | Move over Cheetos, there's a new entry into vending machine notoriety: the morning-after pill.

Up to now, the most controversial products found inside a college campus vending machine have been the high-fat, high-sugar snack items such as potato chips, Hostess fruit pies and the multitude of candy bars that are the common meal replacement staples in many busy students' lives.

In recent days though, media outlets have reported that the Plan B One-Step emergency contraceptive is being offered in a vending machine at Shippensburg University, a small public college located approximately 40 southwest of Harrisburg, Pa.

With this hot topic issue in the nation's gaze, the United States Food and Drug Administration now is investigating whether the vending machine at the state college is in accordance with a federal requirement that females under age 17 have a prescription for the drug. Women over that age legally are not required to have a prescription to buy it.

Located in the student health center, the vending machine in question is not accessible to anyone outside the school, school officials report. Shippensburg University has determined that not one of the current 8,300 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled at Shippensburg is younger than 17.

According to the school, all entrants to the health center require swiping a college identification card. The birth control sells for $25, cash only, which is significantly cheaper than the price at local drugstores or pharmacies located within grocery stores or big box stores such as Wal-Mart or Target .

The birth control vending machines actually have been in use for the last two years, but have gained national prominence due to recent print and broadcast news reports. In a written statement made available by Shippensburg University President Bill Ruud on the school's website, Rudd explains that the health center is not dispensing RU-486, also called the abortion pill, and that no state-supported or taxpayer-supported dollars are used for this service. He also reiterates that counseling services are available in the student health center to any and all students requesting them.

Both the Shippensburg student body population and the general public are at odds with how and where they stand on vending machines distributing birth control. Some people believe it promotes sexual promiscuity, while others approve of the easier access to a legal form of birth control. When I attended UCLA in the early 90s, the student health center at that large public university provided condoms and birth control pills. One tablet-one dose emergency contraception didn't exist. All I know is there were several female students I knew who could've benefited from access to a new, convenient, and legal form of contraception.

Sources:
http://www.ship.edu/News/2012/02/President_Ruud_s_statement_on_Plan_B/