Education

Yale Can’t Have A Plan B Vending Machine. Here’s What It Is Doing Instead

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Yale University is resorting to Plan C after a Plan B vending machine was deemed illegal on campus.

Students at the Ivy League school can get the emergency contraception pill for free without a clinician’s permission, according to Yale’s College Council president. While Yale Health already offered Plan B for free, the vending machine was supposed to provide an alternative place to purchase Plan B and other over-the-counter drugs, Yale Daily News reported.

Plan B is a pill meant to prevent pregnancy after unprotected sex or other birth control methods failed. Emergency contraception can generally cost between $35 and $60.

Connecticut’s law does not allow the sale of over-the-counter medication, or nonlegend drugs, in vending machines, the Daily News reported.

“No nonlegend drug shall be sold or offered or exposed for sale or dispensed by any means in any type of vending machines,” according to a Connecticut Secretary of the State document.

Yale Health along with the Yale College Council, as a result, revamped policies to make them clearer and increase access to Plan B.

“Yale Health has made emergency contraception products, such as Plan B  and My Way, available free of charge to Yale-affiliated members, including students who waive Yale Health coverage. Members of any gender may request emergency contraception at the pharmacy during regular hours, or from Acute Care after hours,” Karen Peart, Yale’s deputy press secretary, told The Daily Caller News Foundation over email. “The Paragard IUD is another emergency contraceptive option available in the Ob-Gyn department. Comprehensive counseling regarding contraception and reproductive health are available to all students in the Ob-Gyn department or in Student Health.”

“These products have been available at the Yale Health Pharmacy for many years before a group of students originated the idea of piloting a wellness machine. However, the wellness machines will not be available on campus,” she continued. “State laws currently do not permit over-the-counter medications to be sold through these machines.”

Yale Health’s website states student can obtain emergency contraception at acute care or at “Yale Health Pharmacy (either going to the Pharmacy directly, or after consulting with a provider in one of our clinical departments).”

“I believe the new system at Yale Health will help combat a lot of the issues that had led us to propose the machine originally,” Yale College Council representative Ileana Valdez said, according to the Daily News.

The student government had planned to install the vending machine in December 2018.

Stanford University installed a vending machine for birth control and contraception pills in 2017.

Brandeis College also received a $5,000 grant from Planned Parenthood in 2017 to have a wellness machine on campus that would have free Plan B, menstrual products and ibuprofen, according to The Brandeis Hoot.

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