Plan B: Prescription Free at UHS

Harvard University Health Services (UHS) began offering Plan B, an emergency contraceptive, without a prescription last month—just over four months after the pill became nationally available without prescription.

UHS began distributing the drug over the counter on Nov. 30, and has since given the pill to three people without prescription, according to Chief of Medicine Soheyla D. Gharib.

Two were female students who received the medication at no cost, and the other was a man who had to pay the full charge of $36.19 plus tax, Gharib wrote in an e-mail.

But the over-the-counter distribution has not caused students to flock to UHS. Since Nov. 30, a total of nine packets of the contraceptive have been dispensed—including six additional packets that were given in clinics—compared to an average of eleven packets a week when a prescription was necessary.

But, said Gharib, the slight decrease was “probably not statistically significant.”

UHS currently offers students with moral objections to abortion a refund for the portion of term-bill fees that funds elective abortions—but the refund will not be extended to the funding of Plan B, Gharib wrote.

Plan B does not abort embryos implanted in the uterus but rather prevents ovulation and possibly fertilization and implantation, according to the Food and Drug Administration’s Web site.

President of Harvard Right to Life (HRL) Mary E. Collins ’08 said her organization was ambivalent about the drug’s availability.

“At this point, HRL is not focusing on trying to get UHS to change its procedures regarding Plan B,” she said.

She added that although HRL considers the prevention of implantation to be “the same as an abortion,” this position is “not universally recognized.”

But Sean P. Mascali ’08, the co-director of Harvard Students for Choice, lauded the move by UHS.

“I’m very proud that Harvard is taking steps to ensure the reproductive health and sexual health of its students,” he said.

Although FDA regulations prevent pharmacies from giving Plan B to anybody under 18 without a prescription, some pharmacists in Massachusetts are allowed to prescribe the medication to minors.

Currently, none of the pharmacists at UHS are authorized to do so, but Gharib said this is a goal UHS is working towards.

“For now, students and other patients under age 18 will have to come in to be seen to get Plan B.”

—Staff writer John R. Macartney can be reached at jmacartn@fas.harvard.edu