‘Doritos and Plan B:’ new vending machine sells emergency contraception to students
George Washington University students can now purchase emergency contraception from a vending machine, which one student described as a place to ‘get Doritos and Plan B at the same time.’
GW currently offers the pills at $30 plus tax–an approximately $20 price cut from most vendors–but student leaders are trying to further subsidize the cost.
George Washington University (GW) students can now purchase emergency contraception–from a vending machine.
This morning-after-on-demand is an initiative of GW’s Student Association (SA) and offers the privacy of the student center basement where women can, as one student told The Washington Post, “get Doritos and Plan B at the same time.”
SA President Christian Zidouemba began discussions with his cabinet after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and ended the Constitutional protection for abortion, according to the student newspaper, The GW Hatchet. As SA leaders collaborated, one GW student described emergency contraception as a measure to “ensure the health and safety of its students.”
“Being forced to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term could jeopardize students’ education, so GW should give them accessible options for maintaining their reproductive health to ensure their safety and academic success,” she wrote. Barnard College and Boston University–where students can buy morning-after pills for $7.25–“are miles ahead of GW in terms of reproductive health resources,” according to the op-ed.
GW currently offers the pills at $30 plus tax, which The Washington Post reported as an approximately $20 price cut from most vendors who sell these pills over the counter. SA leaders are trying to further subsidize the cost and told The Washington Post that they “have applied for grants.” They also want access to the pills in a more discreet location than the student center basement.
In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, GW administrators voiced their support for abortion. The GW Maternal and Child Health Center, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Medical Faculty Associates, Institute School of Public Health, and School of Nursing called Dobbs “appalling“ and a “ruling [that] will disproportionately affect younger women, women of color, and their families.”
Pro-life students, however, want assurance that they will not have to support the vending machines, which one SA leader told The Washington Post are not subsidized by tuition.
[RELATED: These 10 Christian universities are promoting abortion, Planned Parenthood]
Other college campuses have made emergency contraception accessible to students with the help of the American Society for Emergency Contraception (ASEC), according to The Washington Post.
ASEC’s Emergency Contraception for Every Campus (EC4EC) initiative advocates for expanding vending machines and supports students distributing emergency contraception “in a discreet and confidential way” on campuses where “students face extra barriers.”
Some of these campuses, ASEC notes, are “[r]eligiously-affiliated or generally more conservative.”
Executive Director Kelly Cleland told The Washington Post that ASEC “has worked with students at more than 70 campuses in 31 states.”
Campus Reform contacted George Washington University, the Student Association, GW Students for Life, and the American Society for Emergency Contraception for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
