University installs morning after pill vending machine

UNDATED -- A pill plan at a Pennsylvania university is causing some controversy. The school is offering the morning after pill to students in one very unique way; a vending machine.

It’s that easy. Students at Shippensburg University can now walk into the health center and get Plan B, the emergency contraception, from a vending machine.

“We had some conversations with them. We went out and did a survey of the student body, and we got an 85 percent response rate that students would be supportive of having Plan B in the health center,” said Doctor Roger Serr, VP Student Affairs, Shippensburg University.

The university does not make a profit from this. They pay $25 for one dose and that's exactly what the student has to pay.

“We were uncomfortable providing that for free because that would mean we were supporting Plan B with either state money or B money.

Doctor Serr says that somewhere between 50 and 400 doses are sold each year to the female population, which last fall totaled 3,718 students.

The pill can be legally sold over the counter to anyone 17 or older.

Doctor Serr says making it available through a vending machine makes things a bit more comfortable for students.

“The machine is really used as much for privacy as anything else,” Dr. Serr said.

The university is not concerned about misuse or abuse of the medication among the student population.

Doctors say contracting an STD or developing infertility are some of the risks of using plan b as a regular method of birth control, and not an emergency contraceptive.

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