Federal regulators have decided not to take any action against a Pennsylvania university for selling the Plan B "morning-after" pill from a campus vending machine.
Officials at Shippensburg University and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reviewed the dispensing method for the emergency contraceptive after concerns arose last year over its availability to students. Some critics claimed the vending machine would encourage more students to have sex.
"FDA looked at publicly available information about Shippensburg's vending program and spoke with university and campus health officials and decided not to take any regulatory actions," Erica V. Jefferson, an FDA spokeswoman, said in a statement made available to MSN News.
Plan B is an over-the-counter medication available without prescription for those 17 years old or older at pharmacies and drug stores around the nation. It's meant to be taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex.
The vending machine containing Plan B is in a room inside Shippensburg University's health center, which only students and university employees can access. The machine has been in place for about three years, but its existence wasn't widely known until last year, when stories about it hit the national media.
After controversy arose, university officials and others met to discuss the availability of Plan B on campus. Both the Student Senate and the University Forum passed resolutions saying the medication should continue to be dispensed.
Personally I think that if they sell condoms in a vending machine there is no reason why they can't sell other forms of birth control by vending machine. Plus, what better place to sell them than college as that is where young adults may be a little wild!
No comments:
Post a Comment