Self-Service

California requires colleges to provide machines offering emergency contraception

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November 14, 2023

California colleges are required to have machines offering wellness products, including emergency contraception products, under a state law, according to a report in Daily Nexus, the University of California, Santa Barbara newspaper.

The machines are required to offer menstrual products, condoms, dental dams, pregnancy tests and emergency contraception items such as Plan B at a discounted price under 2022 Assembly Bill 2482.

The Wellness Vending Machine on the second floor of the library at UC Santa Barbara sold 1,050 units of emergency contraception from May 2022 to May 2023, according to Betsy Kaminiski, director of Women, Gender and Sexual Equity at the UCSB Women's Center and the Non-Traditional Student Resource Center.

She said 350 to 400 units of Plan B are expected to be sold by the end of the current quarter.