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Courtesy of YDSA
UCF students organize for free and accessible emergency contraception on campus.
Access to abortion care in Florida and across the country remains precarious, and in some states, is no longer accessible at all. Students at the University of Central Florida, eyeing this issue with concern, are advocating for ways to help young people prevent unwanted pregnancy — and no, it’s not through the failed strategy of promoting abstinence only.
Student organizers at UCF, the state’s largest university by enrollment based in Orlando, have joined young adults on other college campuses in advocating for expanded access to emergency contraception — specifically, what’s known as the “morning after” pill. This can be taken up to five days after having unprotected sex to help prevent pregnancy, although it’s most effective when taken the morning after or within three days.
The effort to expand access to emergency contraception is being spearheaded by student members of the Young Democratic Socialists of America, the student arm of a national political organization that advocates for social and economic justice.
Reana Sinani, a recent graduate of UCF and co-chair of UCF’s YDSA chapter, told Orlando Weekly that the group began gathering digital petitions on-campus earlier this semester, with the ultimate goal of making Plan B free and accessible for all students.
“We got like, I want to say 600 signatures or something in three days, which was really, really cool,” said Sinani, 22, a psychology major.
The group organized tabling events, where they shared information about emergency contraception and offered free Plan B supplied by groups like Orlando’s Stand With Abortion Now and Emergency Contraception 4 Every Campus, a national project of the American Society for Emergency Contraception.
Then, in February, students reached a milestone.
After meeting with the university’s chief public health officer on two separate occasions to discuss the issue, UCF’s Student Health Services switched to a lower-cost supplier of levonorgestrel, the generic version of Plan B, moving the price from $20 down to $6 on the university’s main campus in late February.
Chief public health officer Dr. Michael Deichen, who also serves as associate vice president of UCF’s Student Health Services, declined an interview with Orlando Weekly, but confirmed the price drop in an emailed statement.
After YDSA met with the university’s chief public health officer on two separate occasions to discuss the issue, UCF Student Health Services lowered the price of generic Plan B.
“Medications are sold at a reduced markup in keeping with ongoing efforts to provide affordable and quality care to students,” Deichen shared, somewhat downplaying the students’ involvement in the decision. “Among the items available is generic emergency contraception, now priced lower due to a new vendor’s reduced purchase cost.”
A spokesperson for the pharmacy emphasized that brand-name Plan B, the functional equivalent of the generic version, will remain priced at $40 through UCF’s pharmacy.
It’s only the generic version — available over the counter at the student pharmacy — that is now priced at $5.98.
Student organizers nonetheless celebrated the decision on social media (and confirmed they were aware it was the generic, not brand-name Plan B, that was now priced at a lower cost).
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Instagram
An Instagram post from UCF YDSA celebrates the university’s plan to reduce the cost of generic Plan B on-campus.
“This is only the start of our campaign as we will continue to look for venues to make Plan B FREE and ACCESSIBLE for all UCF students!” the group wrote in an Instagram post.
According to Sinani, the group had collected roughly 1,600 petitions in support of the initiative as of March. Most came from students, in addition to some staff and faculty.
The goal of their campaign, she added, isn’t just to reduce the cost of emergency contraception, but also to make it more accessible through additional pickup locations across campus.
Currently, emergency contraceptives are only available at the university’s pharmacy through Student Health Services. Not everyone knows where that is, said Sinani, unless they have another prescription to pick up.
But they’re considering ways to make it easier for people to access. One idea that’s picked up steam across the country is the installation of vending machines on college campuses that distribute emergency contraceptives and other personal or sexual health products.
According to Emergency Contraception 4 Every Campus, student activists have successfully advocated for the placement of these vending machines on roughly 60 campuses nationwide, including three in Florida.
The University of Florida, Florida Gulf Coast University and the University of South Florida all have vending machines that distribute contraceptives and other personal healthcare products on-campus, according to EC4EC.
So do universities in other states coast to coast, from New York to North Carolina, Ohio, Washington and California.
“Our campaign slogan is free and accessible Plan B for all students, and that’s truly like what we’re pushing for.”
Kelly Cleland, executive director of the American Society for Emergency Contraception, told Orlando Weekly there’s no law that currently prohibits the sale of EC in vending machines in any state. “So that puts student leaders in a great position,” Cleland said.
Some of the benefits of these vending machines, she said, include product affordability, timely access and privacy — with no questions asked at the pharmacy counter, and the ability for a student to pick up the item when they need it, on their own terms.
The ideal placement for these machines, advocates say, is in centrally located buildings that are open for extended hours or, better, 24/7. They could also be placed in gender-neutral bathrooms, libraries (like at the University of South Florida in Tampa) or other easily accessible spaces.
“Unprotected sex doesn’t only happen during business hours!” Cleland pointed out. “And many students experience stigma or embarrassment about needing EC and may not want to have to answer questions about their purchase, so vending machines can provide that anonymity and privacy.”
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Courtesy of YDSA
UCF students organize for free and accessible emergency contraception on campus.
At the University of Central Florida, Sinani said most people they’ve talked to on the ground about making EC more accessible have been receptive to the idea — even students who self-identified as conservative or anti-abortion.
“I’ve gotten comments like, ‘Oh, this would decrease abortions, so I will sign it,’” said Sinani, who herself supports abortion access.
Organizing around abortion access was actually a launching pad for the EC initiative. Before kicking off their Plan B campaign, students with YDSA first began gathering petitions last year for a proposed abortion-rights ballot initiative, spearheaded by the political committee Floridians Protecting Freedom.
The proposed constitutional amendment, if approved by Florida voters, would guarantee a right to abortion up to roughly 24 weeks of pregnancy.
After gathering the necessary number of signatures, advocates are now waiting to see whether the initiative will get final Supreme Court approval for placement on the November ballot. Florida’s self-described “pro-choice” State Attorney General Ashley Moody has argued the language of their proposal is too vague and would “hoodwink” voters.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court effectively overturned the constitutional right to abortion in 2022, a number of states have become statewide abortion deserts, where abortion care is banned and completely inaccessible.
This is not true for Florida, which is — for now — the most accessible state for abortion care in the U.S. South, despite a 15-week limit on abortion that opponents have challenged in the courts. A six-week ban, approved by the state Legislature’s Republican majority in 2023, is currently on hold pending a state Supreme Court decision.
As Vox has reported, curtailing access to emergency contraception is still considered a “fringe” view, even among those opposed to abortion — although some anti-abortion activists have reportedly been laying the groundwork for such an initiative for decades.
One of the most memorable moments Orlando Weekly had in 2021 at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), held in Orlando that year, was a conversation about abortion with a young woman holding a sizable “Babies Lives Matter” flag.
The young woman, originally from Venezuela, and her boyfriend said they were anti-abortion, but agreed that access to birth control was important. (They were less decisive on whether birth control should be cost-free — because, yes, we did ask.)
One advantage the “fringe” anti-abortion activists have is that many Americans don’t understand what EC is, and how it differs from procedures to terminate a pregnancy.
A 2023 poll by KFF found 93% of U.S. adults were aware of Plan B or “morning-after” pills, but only 62% were aware it was not the same as the abortion pill. Nearly three-quarters (73%) incorrectly believed that emergency contraception is capable of ending a pregnancy in its early stages.
Students at UCF, organizing around emergency contraception access, also encountered this misinformation or other misunderstandings about how EC works.
Sinani said their campaign has been an “informative” experience, and it’s been fulfilling to be able to offer informational resources to other young people. To her, accessibility is what’s most important.
College students aren’t the most financially stable, she said. They may be between jobs. Not everyone can afford to drop $40 on Plan B if they have unprotected sex or are assaulted. “Our campaign slogan is ‘free and accessible Plan B for all students,’ and that’s truly what we’re pushing for.”
Cleland, with the American Society for Emergency Contraception, stressed that EC isn’t just for people who are sexually active. There are a number of reasons that a person might seek it out, including cases of sexual assault and a lack of access to non-emergency contraception.
“Making EC accessible and affordable helps keep students achieve their goals and have autonomy over their bodies and futures,” she said.
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