Yale University plans to offer morning after pill in vending machines

The Yale Daily News has reported that Yale University will be supplying Plan B — also known as the morning-after pill — to students through a vending machine for a price of about $50. The vending machine, which will also be equipped with condoms and sexual lubricant, will be located at Silliman College, a residential college at Yale, in the Good Life Center. Yale spokeswoman Karen Peart has said that the morning-after pill is already available free of charge to any student at the Yale Health Pharmacy or at Acute Care twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

“The point of this is to make Plan B more accessible and to make medications in general more accessible,” said Ileana Valdez, a Yale College Council representative who oversaw the project. “Hopefully this will set a precedent for more machines to show up around campus that contain other things so Yale students don’t have to go out of their way to go to CVS, especially students from the new colleges.”

The morning-after pill machine will be stocked for free by Vengo Labs, and Assistant Dean of Student Affairs Melanie Boyd has said that the Yale College Council is working to ensure every student knows of the “easy availability of Plan B” at Yale.

According to the Mayo Clinic, side effects of Plan B can include nausea or vomiting, dizziness, fatigue, headache, breast tenderness, heavy menstrual bleeding, and abdominal pain and cramps. Mayo warns that if bleeding or even spotting lasts longer than a week or severe abdominal pain lasts more than three weeks, a doctor should be contacted.

Manufacturers claim that the morning-after pill does not cause an abortion but only prevents pregnancy by preventing ovulation and won’t work if you’re already pregnant. However, the morning-after pill can be taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex, leaving a window during which an egg released during this time could be fertilized and a new life created. Enough progesterone would then fail to be produced to support the new life, preventing it from implanting.

Stanford, Pomoma College, Brandeis, UC Davis, and UC Santa Barbara are other colleges that supply Plan B to students through vending machines.