On Oct. 25, 2022, ASUW announced that a reproductive health care vending machine would be the newest addition to campus. Located in the basement of Odegaard Undergraduate Library next to the By George Café, the vending machine contains Plan B, pregnancy tests, ibuprofen, and other care items, readily available for purchase.
The legislation was initially introduced to the ASUW Senate on May 17, 2022, by student senator Kels Rizzo. While Rizzo was the main sponsor of the resolution, they worked alongside many co-sponsors who also contributed to writing the legislation. The list includes Nat Cabrera, Kimberly Chen, Kip Diaz, Kat Kane, Sydney Spencer, Madison Truitt, Anastasia Vargas, Sephora-Clotilde Zoro, Katherine Chen, Anya Fogel, and Toby Gallant. Rizzo also enlisted the help of interested RSOs for research and lobbying help.
Secretary of Huskies for Reproductive Freedom (HFRF) Anya Fogel explained the importance of getting student opinions for legislation like this.
“Even though the student government is made of individuals that have their own opinions, they're supposed to represent the student population,” Fogel said. “It's important to get students to voice their opinion and express [that] this is what we want and this is what we need.”
After reading and amending the legislation, as well as sending it to the Board of Directors for approval, the legislation officially passed by unanimous vote on June 3, 2022. After passage, ASUW President Timothy Billing worked with the UW administration to make this legislation a reality.
“During the summer, I had several meetings with administration, and at each of them, I brought up this legislation,” Billing said. “Administration was very supportive of this idea, and eventually, the Office of Student Life was the unit who helped do a lot of the work in making it a reality.”
There were many challenges to ensuring that this resource was as useful to students as it could possibly be. The biggest was the novelty of this idea and creating a system that would work. Unlike other vending machines on campus, this machine could not be outsourced by a vendor, so it had to be done independently.
“We needed to find a place to purchase the products at more affordable prices, create a mechanism for monitoring expiration dates [which requires a legal system], restocking, and buy a machine for everything,” Billing said.
ASUW worked with the School of Pharmacy, the graduate student RSO Pharmacists for Reproductive Education and Sexual Health (PhRESH), and the Office of Student Life to go about monitoring the machines and purchasing the products. It was very important to the writers of the legislation that the products were affordable for students. The current prices are $12 for Plan B, $7 for pregnancy tests, and $2 for ibuprofen.
There are some changes both Billing and Fogel discussed that should be addressed in the future. They include offering payment options other than card, the inclusivity of the products offered, and adding additional locations of machines.
Fogel and other members of the club are passionate about reproductive justice and are happy that UW is making changes, but want to see more inclusion of their opinions when making implementation decisions.
“By providing affordable Plan B on campus in locations that students find helpful, it sends a signal that while some states are losing progress hard-fought for, UW is working toward taking a step forward,” Billing said. “It is our duty to ensure we are ready to fight for our students’ rights and remain committed to creating pockets of resistance, of hope, and of acceptance, in an effort to build a university and a larger world we want to be proud of.”
HFRF and ASUW are working toward future projects to increase reproductive justice efforts. In addition to adding more machines, they hope to implement access to medical abortion on campus and funding for access to sexual assault prevention and care.
The groups involved in reproductive justice on campus are PhRESH, the UW School of Pharmacy, HFRF, ASUW Sexual Assault and Relationship Violence Activists, the ASUW Student Disability Commission, the ASUW Gender Equity Commission, and UW Greek Life.
Reach writer Paige Stanley at news@dailyuw.com. Twitter:@paigestan10
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