FDA OKs Plan B vending machine

Federal regulators will let a Pennsylvania university continue to dispense Plan B — also known as the morning-after pill — through a vending machine.

{mosads}The Food and Drug Administration decided not to intervene following a “politically motivated uproar” over the vending machine Shippensburg University installed in its nurses’ office.

FDA looked at publicly available information about Shippenburg State’s vending program and spoke with university and campus health officials and decided not to take any regulatory actions, the FDA said.

Students at the university can obtain Plan B without waiting for an appointment by depositing $25 in the machine.

Plan B is available without a prescription to women 17 and older. The university doesn’t have any students younger than 17, so it’s not in danger of violating FDA prescribing rules, a report about the move inThinkProgress said.

Plan B is a controversial medication, as many conservatives believe it causes abortion. Many liberals, on the other hand, were upset when the FDA — under orders from Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius — declined to make it available without a prescription to women younger than 17.

This story was updated at 1:02 p.m.

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