While Student Health Services offers the Plan B emergency contraceptives at a lower price, Boston University students said the potential wait has compelled many to turn to other options.
SHS offers Plan B for $25, a steep discount from about $50 it costs at CVS Pharmacy and other stores.
Students have to request an appointment with SHS to get the emergency contraceptive, but may have to wait up to three days, at which point Plan B tends to be ineffective, said College of Arts and Sciences freshman Kelly Russell, a member of Voices for Choice.
Russell said club members consider the wait an issue for students.
“Toward the end of the three days is when the pill is not nearly as effective as within the first 24 hours or 48 hours,” she said. “So we thought that was definitely a problem.”
BU spokesman Colin Riley said appointments are sometimes booked for a day or two in advance, and are mandatory for those interested in purchasing Plan B.
“An appointment is required to ensure that the medication is appropriate for the student’s situation, and it must be purchased by the person who needs it,” he said.
Riley also said students can purchase the pill over the counter at a local pharmacy if needed.
CAS junior Ivy Lieberman said she wouldn’t go to SHS first if she ever needed emergency contraception, though the lower price could influence her decision in such a situation.
“I would probably go to Planned Parenthood before anywhere else,” Lieberman said in an email. “To deny someone care simply because they didn’t make an appointment in the case of an emergency would be ridiculous.”
CAS senior Lizzie Whetstone, director of Voices for Choice, said the club has begun exploring the issue to learn more about the SHS policy. VOX members see two problems with the current way in which they get Plan B from SHS.
“One of [the concerns with going to a pharmacy versus SHS] is that we have a student health center on campus that should provide first and foremost for its students’ health,” Whetstone said. “The other thing is that if you’re going to CVS, you’re paying $50 for that Plan B as opposed to $25 at Student Health Services.”
Whetstone said she heard SHS has a number of slots open for “emergency” walk-in appointments, but didn’t know if Plan B would fall under that category.
Whetstone learned about the issue after someone she knew tried to get Plan B through SHS.
“It didn’t work through the proper institution channels that it should have, and we realized, ‘Okay, that’s not right and that’s an issue affecting women’s health on campus that we could maybe do something to change,’” she said.
Russell said she knows students who avoided going to Student Health Services for the emergency contraception.
“I’ve known students that . . . have just gone and bought it instead of waiting for Student Health Services to give them an appointment because when you’re nervous about something like that, you would much rather have it than wait,” Russell said.
Whetstone said she is drafting a proposal and plans to meet with SHS and the Dean of Students. She said she feels eager to meet with them and learn about their side of the issue.
Russell said, “I’m not sure whether it’s just a technical glitch or an oversight with everyone needing an appointment or whether it is something that as a policy they cannot change.”
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Here’s a solution for this… stop having unprotected sex. What is this 1985?? We’re college students, take precaution, morons!
Aside from the fact that many people use contraception and GET PREGNANT ANYWAY, lecturing them about what they SHOULD HAVE DONE is most certainly NOT a “solution” once the deed is already done. You’re not really interested in a solution to unwanted pregnancy, Thomas…all you care about is punishing women for not living up to your own definition of morality by having premarital sex.
Even when you do everything safely and correctly to prevent these issues, things can always go wrong. Condoms can break, or perhaps a type a birth control is recalled (which just happened), whatever the matter is. Students need a reliable way to access Plan B, in an affordable and prompt manner. It’s available as an over the counter drug in pharmacies and at Planned Parenthood, so an appointment should not be necessary, especially if because the waiting period reduces the effectiveness.
Accidents happen. A condom can break even if the person uses it properly. Plus condoms aren’t 100% effective and if a woman feels anxiety about birth control failing there is Plan B and that Plan B should be made easily accessible through student health; and since Plan B is a time sensitive option it should be easily accessible for students. And if a student does go to a CVS to purchase faster than SHS can help, SHS should have to refund the student the difference. They are here to maintain our health, not fall short and only be available after it’s too late.
Moronic. Listen, you either make it available or you don’t. Instead, the University is worrying about politics and trying to please both progressives and social conservatives at the same time: so they make this OTC medication available, but they treat it like a prescription drug by forcing you to get an appointment for it, and deliberately reduce the effectiveness by making you wait. So what’s the point? What’s more important to you? Making this available to students who need it or keeping old fashioned prudes happy? If you want to make it available, you have to stop caring what people who are against it think. If you’re worried about what people who are against it think, then just don’t offer it at all.