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February 8

University vending machine offers morning-after pill

The FDA is contacting officials at a Pennsylvania university for facts amid a recent furor over religious rights.

The Associated Press

Students at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania can get the "morning-after" pill by sliding $25 into a vending machine, an idea that has drawn the attention of federal regulators and raised questions about how accessible emergency contraception should be.

click image to enlarge

The vending machine at Shippensburg University provides the Plan B emergency contraceptive.

The Associated Press

The student health center at Shippensburg, a secluded public institution of 8,300 students tucked between mountain ridges in the Cumberland Valley, provides the Plan B One Step emergency contraceptive in the vending machine along with condoms, decongestants and pregnancy tests.

Federal law makes the pill available without a prescription to anyone 17 or older, and the school checked records and found that all current students are that age or older, a spokesman said.

The machine has been in place for about two years, and its existence wasn't widely known until recently. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is contacting state officials and the university to gather facts, agency spokeswoman Stephanie Yao said Tuesday.

The FDA's sudden interest took place amid a furor over religious rights and access to birth control.

The machine is in the school's Etter Health Center, which only students and university employees can access, a school spokesman said in a statement. In addition, "no one can walk in off the street and go into the health center." Students must check in at a lobby desk.

 

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