Almost half of all university-based health clinics in the United States do not offer students access to emergency contraception, according to a study published in the Journal of American College Health, Reuters Health reports. Dr. Susan McCarthy of Eastern Michigan University surveyed 358 university-based health clinics in the United States in 1999 about the availability of EC -- which, when taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex, can prevent pregnancy by disrupting fertilization or implantation -- and their reasons for or against supplying the pills to students. According to the survey, 52% of the clinics offered EC to students, and among those clinics offering the pills, 60% said that they publicized the availability of EC at the clinic through peer educators and brochures. Schools in the Northeast were more likely to offer EC than schools in the South and Midwest, and larger universities were more likely to offer the hormonal treatment than smaller schools. Most of the colleges and universities that supplied the pills had not offered EC for very long; about half of the clinics said that they had offered EC for five years or less, and about one-third reported that they had only begun supplying the drug in 1999.

Rationale For, Against EC Provision
University-based health clinics that offer EC said that they did so to help prevent unintended pregnancies within the student body and to "respond to students' desires," Reuters Health reports. Among the clinics that did not offer EC, many cited religious reasons, objections from school officials, a fear of liability or a lack of student interest as their reasons for not doing so. However, more than 70% of the clinics that did not offer EC said that they provide students with referrals to health facilities that do provide EC, and 8% of the clinics reported that they were considering offering EC or altering their policy in some way within the following 12 months. McCarthy concluded, "Researchers need to determine the underpinnings of these barriers (to supplying emergency contraception) in order to develop appropriate interventions for change. Similar efforts ... target[ing] those schools that offer emergency contraception pills but do not publicize their availability should also be undertaken" (Reuters Health, 9/16).