In response to the overturn of Roe v. Wade, UT students came together to advocate for access to low-cost emergency contraceptives, including an initiative for the installment of wellness vending machines on campus.

However, not much has changed in the year since student leaders passed this initiative.

With a lack of progress from the University, student-led organizations have taken it upon themselves to provide support to their peers through protests, administrative discussions, Student Government policies and offering free reproductive health kits. Still, many students say attempts to make contraceptives more accessible — something that’s available on numerous college campuses across the country — has been met with pushback by UT administration.

On-campus struggles for access

The Gynecology Clinic at University Health Services provides access to over-the-counter and prescription emergency contraceptives through appointments, according to Sofia Feltwell, president of Students for Planned Parenthood. However, students without health insurance can still face large financial barriers to accessing Plan B.

“It’d be hard both to access the financial resources to get it but also just knowing where to go if you don’t have insurance,” psychology senior Feltwell said. “Not knowing (the cost) up front would lead a lot of students to just be like, ‘I can’t go in the first place.’”

Not only is it difficult and discouraging to seek out resources in such a complicated healthcare system, but the constant threat of judgment also acts as a barrier to many students considering in-person care for emergency contraceptives, said Gabriela Nelson, a member of Emergency Contraceptives for Every Campus. 

“Going through the University, … it’s kind of scary exposing your privacy like that,” said Nelson, an international relations and global studies senior. “People should be able to get the resources they need without feeling judgment. And if that means a little machine outside where you don’t have to interact with anyone, I think that’s amazing.”

Emergency contraceptives like Plan B, After Pill, EContra Ez, Aftera and more are over-the-counter single-dose oral pills taken after sexual intercourse, but they have significant body mass index limitations to their effectiveness. Emergency contraception pill ella has a higher BMI limitation but is a prescription-only pill and cannot be provided in an over-the-counter wellness vending machine. Each of these brands provide pills that are effective up to five days after intercourse, with each getting progressively less effective with every following hour. 

Nelson said when she told her friends about Plan B distribution drives that Emergency Contraceptives for Every Campus and SFPP host, they were shocked and emphasized how expensive and difficult it is to buy emergency contraceptives.

The plan to supply a wellness vending machine on campus suggested selling emergency contraceptives for $10 a piece, making it more accessible than the $49.99 retail price in chain pharmacies. 

The resolution addressed potential bulk suppliers and financial options to operate the vending machine. However, nothing has been enacted by UT administrators despite ongoing talks with students for the past year.  

Wellness vending machines aren’t new

This idea to have a non-stigmatized, discounted and readily available way to access emergency contraceptives isn’t new as universities across the country have implemented similar concepts. 

So far Columbia, Stanford, Dartmouth, Barnard, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, Davidson, Purdue, Northeastern, Boston and more have already installed wellness vending machines on their campuses since 2012. 

Some colleges in Texas, such as the private college Trinity University in San Antonio, received approval from the administration and are in the process of implementing a wellness vending machine on campus either at the end of this semester or the beginning of the fall semester.

“At the beginning of the school year, we reached out to our Student Government and said, ‘We are interested in doing this (vending machine), and we can fund it,’” said Meg McDonald, an ancient Greek senior and the founder of Trinity University for Pro-Choice. “The upper administration of the University was very supportive.”

Meanwhile, some states and universities are hesitant to provide wellness vending machines on their campuses even though Connecticut is the only state to ban the sale of emergency contraceptives by vending machines. 

The University of Idaho does not currently provide students with any form of contraceptives — birth control or emergency contraception — due to the state’s No Public Funds for Abortion Act even though contraceptives are not banned in the state and over-the-counter medication can be legally sold through vending machines. 

Though Texas lacks a similar act, Student Government president Leland Murphy suggested that state politics are still impacting the administrative decisions regarding wellness vending machines. 

“I think (the administration) is trying to help see some version of the vending machine/emergency contraceptive delivery proposal come through,” Murphy said.

“I think the hard part is navigating the tricky political waters with everything up at the state Capitol.” 

Currently, almost all forms of abortion are banned in the state of Texas, making out-of-state travel for abortions essential. However, that’s inaccessible for many people. While emergency contraception does not fall under abortion laws, many states are targeting contraceptives as the next reproductive health resource to regulate.

After building a reproductive justice coalition of student organizations on campus, Murphy said the next initiative in the works is to deliver more emergency contraceptives through a pilot program coming out at the end of the semester. 

Murphy, a Plan II and government senior, said that outside of conversations about the vending machines, other organizations on campus are focusing on distributing more condoms, pregnancy tests and menstrual products.

This is in contrast to March 2022 when an on-campus emergency contraceptive drive hosted by the Texas Visual Arts Collective and SFPP was shut down by Student Activities for passing out medical substances, which they said was against the handbook. However, that’s been disputed as there’s no specific wording regulating the distribution of over-the-counter medications in the University handbook. 

“We met with student leaders who have expressed interest in expanding access to healthcare products for the UT-Austin community,” Katy Redd, associate director for prevention, development & media relations at UHS, said in an email. “At this point, we are still in the exploration phase and reviewing options, considering feasibility and other factors such as cost, convenience and privacy.” 

UT would not provide additional comments for this story and referred The Daily Texan back to their written statement when asked for a live interview.

An uphill battle

SFPP member Ana Fuentes said she is frustrated with the lack of support the administration has provided to reproductive health initiatives on campus when she brought it up during her campaign for SG vice president this year.

“I don’t think the administration has provided sufficient resources and support to students,” government junior Fuentes said. “I personally don’t have health insurance, and so making an appointment with UHS, I know it’s going to put a financial strain on me.”

Nikita Kakkad, the founder of EC4EC at UT, said she has experienced the slow timeline of progress firsthand since she started working on this initiative in December 2021. Since starting, Kakkad has met numerous times with administrators to make emergency contraceptives accessible to students. 

“Admin just doesn’t have the same stake in these kinds of issues that students do,” said Kakkad, a biomedical engineering and Plan II junior. “I think (admin) have the interests of the University in mind and sometimes those align with ours.”

While UT’s administration sees a need for more access to contraception, Kakkad said administrators do not agree that a vending machine is the best way forward. 

“There’s a whole host of evidence that vending machines on college campuses with health supplies in them are successful, and they provide students with necessary tools,” Kakkad said. “I’m not sure that administrators at UT have kind of come around to that reality.”

Though there is still much hesitation and waiting involved, Kakkad said she’s optimistic changes are starting to happen as contraceptive access is increasingly viewed as an important issue on campus.

“I really am never given timelines by the administration, so I don’t know when anything we’ve been working on is going to happen for certain,” Kakkad said. “But I do hope that I’ve created enough institutional momentum that something does happen by the end of the school year. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution. Whatever our solution is may look a little bit different than the solution at other places, but there is the possibility of a solution because it has happened on other college campuses.”