DAVIS, California, April 26, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) – A California university’s decision to make abortifacient drugs available to students via a vending machine in a study lounge has prompted criticism from pro-life and family groups.
A “Wellness To Go” vending machine that dispenses the Plan B drug was installed earlier this month at the University of California-Davis. Along with the abortifacient, it offers Advil, tampons, pregnancy tests, and condoms.
“Colleges and universities should be offering pregnant and parenting students options of housing, financial aid, diaper decks, and childcare instead of handing over abortion drugs,” Students for Life Executive Director Kristan Hawkins said.
Plan B, also known as the “morning after pill,” is referred to as “emergency contraception.” It is intended to suppress ovulation. However, studies have indicated the drug is more likely to cause an early abortion than prevent pregnancy.
Plan B became available to women and girls of all ages without a prescription in 2013 during the Obama administration.
The abortifacient received FDA approval in 1999 for adult use by prescription. In 2006, it became available for sale over-the-counter to women over the age of 18 and for minors by prescription. Then in 2009 a federal judge ordered the FDA to make Plan B available to 17-year-olds over the counter as well.
A Christian family in Washington State has been in court since 2007 fighting the mandate to provide abortifacients Plan B and Ella in their small family-run pharmacy
The UC Davis “Wellness To Go” machine was the product of two years’ efforts by former student Parteek Singh, according to Kron4.com.
“The more skeptical and negativity I got from other people, like ‘oh, it’s not gonna happen,’ kind of pushed me more,” he said.
The vending machine makes the California university one of about four campuses nationally to offer similar emergency contraception access, Kron4.com reported.
Student reaction was mixed. But Singh stated, “I feel like every college should have this.”
Christian and pro-life advocates contend that providing abortion drugs to college students is not a good idea.
“No woman should be forced to choose between the life of her child and her education,” Hawkins told EWTN News.
Human Life International (HLI) Director of Mission Communications Stephan Phelan remarked on the troubling trend of providing abortifacients to students through a vending machine.
“The modern American university, where abortifacient drugs are called “wellness,” and a biological male can declare himself a “girl” and have anyone who disagrees thrown out of school,” Phelan told LifeSiteNews. “We hope parents are paying attention when deciding which schools they will support with tuition dollars and donations.”
Evangelist Franklin Graham posted on his Facebook page about the new kind of vending machine.
“Rather than pushing sugar or caffeine, this one is promoting sex,” he said.
“They call it a ‘Wellness To Go’ machine,” Graham said. “I strongly disagree.”
“There’s nothing healthy about sex outside of marriage between a man and a woman as God created it — in fact it’s dangerous,” he continued. “It is very sad and concerning to see this type of thing embraced on a university campus.”
American Life League Executive Director Jim Sedlak pointed out that those that push Plan B are among the people who continually call for students to be given “medically accurate” information. Yet they use confusing words and hide the real mechanism of Plan B.
“It is a fact that, when Plan B works, it works mostly by preventing implantation of an already created human being, not by preventing fertilization,” Sedlak told LifeSiteNews. “The actual mechanism is hidden from students by telling them Plan B will prevent pregnancy.”
What is not explained, he continued, is that pregnancy has been defined since 1965 as beginning at conception, and conception was defined as implantation in the womb. So any product that acts after fertilization and before implantation is wrongly labeled as a “contraceptive.”
“The fact is that most young women who buy Plan B from that vending machine will end up killing one or more of her children in the womb,” Sedlak said. “It is truly horrible that providing mothers with the means to kill their children is acceptable to our society.”