FDA Considers Whether University Health Center Vending Machine Violates Plan B Regulations

February 15, 2012 5:43 pm

FDA is working with state officials in Pennsylvania as the agency considers whether a vending machine dispensing emergency contraception at Shippensburg University is in violation of federal regulations. The school’s student health center provides a medication vending machine that stocks Plan B One Step emergency contraceptive, along with pregnancy tests and decongestants, ABC News reports. A university spokesman noted that the school checked its records to ensure that no student was under 17 years of age, as federal law allows that the Plan B pill be made available to anyone 17 years of age or older without a prescription. Some experts are questioning whether the drug, which is kept behind the counter at pharmacies, should be so readily available. The university has provided Plan B in the vending machine for two years, but recent national attention to regulatory issues related to birth control access has drawn attention to it, ABC notes.