Students at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania can get the ‘morning-after’ pill by sliding $25 into a vending machine, an idea that has drawn the attention of federal regulators and raised questions about how accessible emergency contraception should be.
The student health center at Shippensburg, a secluded public institution of 8,300 students tucked between mountain ridges in the Cumberland Valley, provides the Plan B One Step emergency contraceptive in the vending machine along with condoms, decongestants and pregnancy tests.
“I think it’s great that the school is giving us this option,” junior Chelsea Wehking said on Tuesday. “I’ve heard some kids say they’d be too embarrassed” to go into town and buy Plan B.
Federal law makes the pill available without a prescription to anyone 17 or older, and the school checked records and found that all current students are that age or older, a spokesman said. It doesn’t appear that any other vending machine in the US dispenses the contraceptive.
The machine has been in place for about two years, and its existence wasn’t widely known until recently. US Food and Drug Administration’s has taken sudden interest in the system amid a furor over religious rights and access to birth control.
Alexandra Stern, a professor of history of medicine at University of Michigan, said she wasn’t questioning a woman’s right to have access to Plan B, but whether making it so easily available is a good idea. “It’s part of the general trend that drugs are available without interface with a pharmacist or doctors. This has serious pitfalls.”
Revolt brews in Cong as ACB liquor raids hit politicians
Mantris, MLAs Up In Arms Against Kiran
Hyderabad: The recent Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) raids on the liquor syndicate is threatening to destabilize the Kiran Kumar Reddy government with about 80 Congress elected representatives including ministers having interests in the liquor business preparing to take on the chief minister over the raids. The development comes in the wake of health minister D L Ravindra Reddy alleging that Kiran Kumar had got the name of a senior minister from the Telangana region removed from the ACB report while allowing the bureau to retain the name of excise minister Mopidevi Venkata Reddy as having taken bribe from the liquor syndicate.
Of the 80-odd Congress elected representatives preparing for a showdown with Kiran Kumar Reddy, 6 are said to be ministers in the state cabinet, 9 MPs and 3 MLCs, with the remaining being MLAs. A large delegation from this group called on PCC president Botsa Satyanarayana and Mopidevi Venkata Ramana during the day and all of them were slated to hold a meeting at a three-star hotel in the city late on Thursday to finalise their plan of action. But apprehending media spotlight, a 7-member delegation called on Botsa late in the night who assured them that he will take up the issue with the CM.
With the opposition gunning for the resignation of Mopidevi and sure to raise a shindig on it in the ensuing budget session of the assembly, Congress sources said the days of the excise minister are numbered. And in order to counter that, several ministers unhappy with Kiran Kumar are planning to turn the cabinet meeting slated for this week-end into a stormy affair. The ministers who are wanting to take on the CM include deputy chief minister C Damodar Raja Narasimha, Sabita Indra Reddy, D L Ravindra Reddy, K Jana Reddy, S Sailajanath, Galla Aruna Kumari, Mopidevi and PCC chief Botsa Satyanarayana.
Big fish go scot-free
In the last two months, Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) officials have been on the hot pursuit of liquor mafia across the state, but ironically not a single ‘syndicate member’ has been nabbed in the city. Reason: High political pressure as some ministers themselves are involved in liquor business in the city. As part of the statewide crackdown against liquor syndicate in the past 50 days, ACB officers have so far arrested over 35 people, including several excise officials. Though there are over 200 retail liquor outlets in the city and ongoing probe throwing light on liquor mafia across the state, ACB sleuths have registered just one case against a syndicate member, who is yet to be arrested.
The student health center at Shippensburg, a secluded public institution of 8,300 students tucked between mountain ridges in the Cumberland Valley, provides the Plan B One Step emergency contraceptive in the vending machine along with condoms, decongestants and pregnancy tests.
“I think it’s great that the school is giving us this option,” junior Chelsea Wehking said on Tuesday. “I’ve heard some kids say they’d be too embarrassed” to go into town and buy Plan B.
Federal law makes the pill available without a prescription to anyone 17 or older, and the school checked records and found that all current students are that age or older, a spokesman said. It doesn’t appear that any other vending machine in the US dispenses the contraceptive.
The machine has been in place for about two years, and its existence wasn’t widely known until recently. US Food and Drug Administration’s has taken sudden interest in the system amid a furor over religious rights and access to birth control.
Alexandra Stern, a professor of history of medicine at University of Michigan, said she wasn’t questioning a woman’s right to have access to Plan B, but whether making it so easily available is a good idea. “It’s part of the general trend that drugs are available without interface with a pharmacist or doctors. This has serious pitfalls.”
Revolt brews in Cong as ACB liquor raids hit politicians
Mantris, MLAs Up In Arms Against Kiran
Hyderabad: The recent Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) raids on the liquor syndicate is threatening to destabilize the Kiran Kumar Reddy government with about 80 Congress elected representatives including ministers having interests in the liquor business preparing to take on the chief minister over the raids. The development comes in the wake of health minister D L Ravindra Reddy alleging that Kiran Kumar had got the name of a senior minister from the Telangana region removed from the ACB report while allowing the bureau to retain the name of excise minister Mopidevi Venkata Reddy as having taken bribe from the liquor syndicate.
Of the 80-odd Congress elected representatives preparing for a showdown with Kiran Kumar Reddy, 6 are said to be ministers in the state cabinet, 9 MPs and 3 MLCs, with the remaining being MLAs. A large delegation from this group called on PCC president Botsa Satyanarayana and Mopidevi Venkata Ramana during the day and all of them were slated to hold a meeting at a three-star hotel in the city late on Thursday to finalise their plan of action. But apprehending media spotlight, a 7-member delegation called on Botsa late in the night who assured them that he will take up the issue with the CM.
With the opposition gunning for the resignation of Mopidevi and sure to raise a shindig on it in the ensuing budget session of the assembly, Congress sources said the days of the excise minister are numbered. And in order to counter that, several ministers unhappy with Kiran Kumar are planning to turn the cabinet meeting slated for this week-end into a stormy affair. The ministers who are wanting to take on the CM include deputy chief minister C Damodar Raja Narasimha, Sabita Indra Reddy, D L Ravindra Reddy, K Jana Reddy, S Sailajanath, Galla Aruna Kumari, Mopidevi and PCC chief Botsa Satyanarayana.
Big fish go scot-free
In the last two months, Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) officials have been on the hot pursuit of liquor mafia across the state, but ironically not a single ‘syndicate member’ has been nabbed in the city. Reason: High political pressure as some ministers themselves are involved in liquor business in the city. As part of the statewide crackdown against liquor syndicate in the past 50 days, ACB officers have so far arrested over 35 people, including several excise officials. Though there are over 200 retail liquor outlets in the city and ongoing probe throwing light on liquor mafia across the state, ACB sleuths have registered just one case against a syndicate member, who is yet to be arrested.
Kiran Kumar under fire for ‘shielding’ favourites
Spelling further divisions in the Kiran cabinet, health minister Ravindra Reddy alleged that Kiran got the name of a senior minister from Telangana dropped from the ACB report while not doing the same in the case of Mopidevi. “A BC minister is being punished to save a minister belonging to the community of the highest office-holder in the state,” the health minister told the media on Thursday.
According to sources, the ACB had charged the Telangana minister with accepting a bribe of Rs 40 lakh from the liquor syndicate. The senior Telangana minister’s name was dropped as a reward for his loyalty to the chief minister even in the thick of the separate state movement, they claimed. Apparently, the fact that the Telangana minister’s name was removed from the ACB report was conveyed by Kiran Kumar to Mopidevi when the latter called on him on Wednesday morning. Mopidevi too was assured that his name would be dropped, but that did not happen and now the excise minister is fighting for his survival, the sources said. Meanwhile, the election affidavit of major and medium irrigation minister P Sudershan Reddy from Nizamabad filed before the 2009 assembly election states that he has major stakes in Sree Venkateshwara Winery and Distilleries and Sree Vinayaka Distillery and Marketing (P) Ltd. While the minister hold 10,488,825 shares in the first company, his wife P Sucharitha has 8,989,625 shares. In the second company, Sudershan Reddy holds no share while the spouse has 3,340,000 shares.
In other developments, the YSR Congress on Thursday demanded that the state government table the ACB report in the House during the ensuing Assembly session. “Though only one name has come into the open whatever be the reason, the ACB report has named 20 ministers and 40 MLAs among others for having links with the liquor mafia and all facts will come into the open only if the report is tabled in the House,” it said in a statement.
Spelling further divisions in the Kiran cabinet, health minister Ravindra Reddy alleged that Kiran got the name of a senior minister from Telangana dropped from the ACB report while not doing the same in the case of Mopidevi. “A BC minister is being punished to save a minister belonging to the community of the highest office-holder in the state,” the health minister told the media on Thursday.
According to sources, the ACB had charged the Telangana minister with accepting a bribe of Rs 40 lakh from the liquor syndicate. The senior Telangana minister’s name was dropped as a reward for his loyalty to the chief minister even in the thick of the separate state movement, they claimed. Apparently, the fact that the Telangana minister’s name was removed from the ACB report was conveyed by Kiran Kumar to Mopidevi when the latter called on him on Wednesday morning. Mopidevi too was assured that his name would be dropped, but that did not happen and now the excise minister is fighting for his survival, the sources said. Meanwhile, the election affidavit of major and medium irrigation minister P Sudershan Reddy from Nizamabad filed before the 2009 assembly election states that he has major stakes in Sree Venkateshwara Winery and Distilleries and Sree Vinayaka Distillery and Marketing (P) Ltd. While the minister hold 10,488,825 shares in the first company, his wife P Sucharitha has 8,989,625 shares. In the second company, Sudershan Reddy holds no share while the spouse has 3,340,000 shares.
In other developments, the YSR Congress on Thursday demanded that the state government table the ACB report in the House during the ensuing Assembly session. “Though only one name has come into the open whatever be the reason, the ACB report has named 20 ministers and 40 MLAs among others for having links with the liquor mafia and all facts will come into the open only if the report is tabled in the House,” it said in a statement.
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