Julia McCarthy: Ashe Center, USAC must make Plan B more accessible to students

At UCLA, students seeking Plan B might need a literal plan B if they’re trying to buy the pill on the weekends.

Bruins have a variety of options when purchasing the Plan B pill, an emergency contraceptive pill women can take up to 72 hours after unprotected sex that largely reduces or prevents the chances of pregnancy. Students covered by the University of California Student Health Insurance Program and most outside insurances can receive free Plan B with a prescription from the Arthur Ashe Student Health and Wellness Center. Without a prescription, one can pay $18.35 for Plan B from the Ashe Center pharmacy. In a regular pharmacy, you’ll have to pay closer to $50 for the pills.

Looking at the options above, it’s hard to imagine why any students would find themselves choosing the last choice considering the obvious affordability of the first two options. But because the Ashe Center is only open from 9am-12pm Saturday and closed entirely Sunday, students might find themselves forking over $50 more often than they would like.

The issue is two fold: Because Plan B’s effectiveness in preventing pregnancy decreases the longer one waits to take it, students may feel pressure to pay the $50 at a local pharmacy over the weekend in order to take the pill as quickly as possible. But for those who cannot afford this option, they may choose to wait until Ashe reopens Monday in order to buy the pill at a reduced cost, potentially decreasing the effectiveness of the pill by waiting longer to take it.

All of this points to the need for a mechanism to fill the void on the weekends when Ashe is unable to provide students with access to affordable emergency contraception. This can come in the form of the Undergraduate Students Association Council Student Wellness Commission providing students with funds to buy Plan B on the weekends when Ashe is not open. Additionally, SWC and Ashe should work together to better publicize emergency contraceptive resources to students.

More specifically, the SWC should work to allot a portion of its budget to purchasing gift cards for local pharmacies, allowing students who may otherwise not be able to afford Plan B on the weekends without the Ashe Center, a feasible way to buy Plan B.

At St. Lawrence University in New York, the Women’s Resource Center, a student group on campus, started a program this past fall in which they provide students with gift cards and coupon discount codes to buy Plan B on the weekends when the school’s student health center is not open.

Maria Leech, a sophomore at St. Lawrence University, helped start the program this past fall by requesting funding for the gift cards from the St. Lawrence student government. Additionally, Leech said her organization has been putting up fliers around the St. Lawrence campus that provide students with information about where they can go and what they can do to access emergency contraception when the health center is closed.

Though St. Lawrence is a much smaller university, with around 2,500 students, the model is one UCLA can work off of.

In addition to providing students with gift cards to local pharmacies, the SWC in conjunction with the Ashe Center can also work to better publicize emergency contraceptive resources available to students. Even simple fliers posted around campus like the ones Leech puts up around St. Lawrence’s campus can be helpful in making students more aware of the various options available to them at the Ashe Center.

With more knowledge of resources, students can adopt a preventative and proactive approach to emergency contraception. They can acquire a prescription for Plan B before they need it and use it over the weekend when the Ashe Center’s pharmacy is closed.

When it comes to safe sex, the SWC has the powerful ability to help educate students about campus resources related to emergency contraception. The Commission is plugged into campus communities and serves as a go-to group for information about student health. Incorporating the topic of emergency contraception into their agenda will allow students to learn about valuable resources on campus.

Because of the somewhat taboo nature of Plan B, many students can be in the dark for their four years on campus, spending unnecessary amounts of money buying emergency contraception their insurance already covers.

Campus groups such as the SWC can serve as safe spaces for students needing help in purchasing Plan B or getting information about emergency contraception. It’s critical that students feel comfortable asking for help in purchasing Plan B, allowing those who need the pill to take it as soon as possible.

Luckily, some of these conversations are already in the works: Student Wellness Commissioner Marvin Chen said he doesn’t think students are necessarily aware of all the emergency contraceptive resources available to them at the Ashe Center, but noted that the SWC will be holding a month-long campaign in the near future that will be about students reclaiming their bodies and bodily health in the new year. This is a step in the right direction, indicating the potential for this month-long campaign to incorporate the topic of Plan B accessibility on campus into programming events.

The ideal situation would be the expansion of Ashe Center Pharmacy hours on the weekends. John Bollard, chief of operations at the Ashe Center, said in an email statement that this is being planned for the fall of this year. But until this change takes place, a modest system involving the SWC providing students with gift cards and Plan B discount codes can provide immediate good to students in need.

Championing affordable access to Plan B and making the issue a campus priority can help to ensure that students won’t need a plan B or C or D when trying to have safe sex.