Abortions pills available by vending machine at 39 US colleges

An abortion lobbying group says 39 colleges in 17 states now have vending machines that provide immediate access to abortion pills.

Additionally, Fox News reports that the group, the American Society for Emergency Contraception (ASEC), said another 20 states are considering making such pills, also known as Plan B or morning after pills, legal at state colleges and universities. 

NBC Boston reported that Plan B pills are available at Boston College via vending machine for $7.25, just above the wholesale price. 

Critics, however, say that providing Plan B vending machines put students at risk for serious medical complications since doctors are not consulted in the administration of the life-killing medicine.  

“Current research shows Plan B can cause serious complications, be ineffective, and potentially create more serious long-term health conditions in the future,” said Students for Life (SFL). “Some of the biggest concerns include the Plan B classification by the World Health Organization as a Group 1 carcinogen and the 44% increased risk of developing breast cancer before the age of 50.” 

A Group 1 carcinogen label is applied where “there is convincing evidence that the agent causes cancer,” according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer. 

SFL is currently running a petition campaign to prevent the installation of the vending machines at Miami  University-Ohio. 

But one supporter of Plan B at George Washington University (GW) said that the convenience of getting abortion pills where you can buy corn chip snacks makes vending machines an ideal way to provide abortions.  

“You could get Doritos and Plan B at the same time,” GW student Aiza Saeed, who lobbied the university to get the machines on campus, told the Washington Post.  

Ironically, one reason why the machines are urgently demanded on college campuses, said ASEC, is because transgender men, who think that male hormone use will prevent pregnancy, are mistaken.  

“Pregnancy is possible for any individual with a uterus and ovary(ies) who has receptive penis-in-vagina sex with partners who produce sperm, regardless of gender identity,” said ASEC. “Patients who are amenorrheic [i.e., experience suppressed menstrual cycles] due to testosterone use may be surprised that they may be at risk for pregnancy.” 

SFL said that making abortion pills widely available in vending machines will also increase the ability of some to exploit women by making Plan B abortions easy for human sex traffickers and other abusers to force women to terminate pregnancies. 

But the risks don’t stop there.  

“Plan B carries an increased risk of ectopic pregnancy, the implantation of the embryo outside of the uterus, which is a life-threatening condition that is also capable of causing life-long infertility,” said SFL. “In addition to these risks, there are harmful potential side effects that may occur from using this drug: dizziness, vomiting, increased chance of irregular menstruation and the development of ovarian cysts, and a higher risk of infection.”