Community Corner

Should Plan B Be in College Vending Machines?

Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania offers it.

For $25, students at Shippensburg University can use a vending machine on campus to get access to Plan B, which is also referred to as the “morning-after pill.”

Plan B is an over-the-counter emergency contraceptive pill to be taken up to 72 hours after unprotected sex.

Towson University is among the places in Maryland considering adding Plan B in a vending machine.

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With a vending machine in a controlled area, Dr. Jane Halpern, director of the university's health center, told Towson Patch, "It's more private; you could come and just purchase it on your own."

The vending machine at Shippensburg University is located in a private room in the school’s student health center that is accessible only to students, according to a university statement released this month.

Find out what's happening in Columbiawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

It was made available after 85 percent of students said in a survey they supported making Plan B available, university officials said.

“The university is not encouraging anyone to be sexually active. That is a decision each student makes on his or her own. The university does strongly encourage all students to make wise and appropriate decisions in all aspects of their lives,” Shippensburg University officials said in a statement.

Some experts have questioned whether vending machine morning after pills make it too easy to get the drug.

"Perhaps it is personalized medicine taken too far," Alexandra Stern, a professor of the history of medicine at the University of Michigan, told Fox News. "It's part of the general trend that drugs are available for consumers without interface with a pharmacist or doctor. This trend has serious pitfalls."

The machine at Shippensburg University has been around for two years, but awareness of it was raised only recently, Fox News reported.


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