Limya Harvey and Cydney Mumford set up a folding table a few times a month on the University of Texas-San Antonio campus to give away kits containing emergency contraceptives, condoms, and lube, or menstrual products like tampons and pads. They typically bring 50 of each type of kit, and after just an hour or two everything is gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 19-year-old sophomores \u2014 Harvey is enrolled at UTSA and Mumford at Northeast Lakeview College \u2014 founded the organization Black Book Sex Ed<\/a> last spring. Their mission is to educate students and others in need about sexual health and connect them with free services and products packaged into kits they distribute on campus, in the community, and through their website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBoth of us grew up rather lower-income,\u201d Mumford said, \u201cso there\u2019s a soft spot as it relates to people who say, \u2018Oh, I just don\u2019t have it right now.\u2019 That\u2019s part of the reason we started doing this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. <\/em>Sign up for The 74 Newsletter<\/strong><\/a><\/p> Harvey and Mumford aren\u2019t alone. A growing number of students on college campuses nationwide are stepping in to provide other students with free or low-cost emergency contraceptives, birth control, and menstrual products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They are also pushing back against threats to their reproductive freedom since the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s Dobbs<\/em> decision last year, which eliminated federal abortion protections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although emergency contraceptives are legal in every state, some policymakers worry that in states that ban or severely restrict abortion, access to emergency contraceptives<\/a> and other types of birth control may erode because of people failing to distinguish between drugs that prevent pregnancy and medications used for abortions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOur requests for help have quadrupled since Dobbs<\/em>,\u201d said Kelly Cleland, the executive director of the American Society for Emergency Contraception, which provides toolkits and technical assistance to help students develop what are becoming known as peer-to-peer distribution networks<\/a>. Those student networks provide emergency contraceptives and bring vending machines<\/a> to their campuses that carry the medications and other personal health care products. The organization has worked with students at more than 200 campuses<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many types of emergency contraceptive pills are available over the counter and without age restrictions. Students who distribute them are generally not putting themselves at legal risk, especially if they ensure the products are in their original packaging and haven\u2019t expired and refrain from providing medical advice, Cleland said. It\u2019s like giving a friend a Tylenol, one advocate explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s really growing and a really interesting new route for people to get what they need in trusted ways, especially in Texas and other states where there are repercussions from the Dobbs<\/em> decision,\u201d said Mara Gandal-Powers, director of birth control access at the National Women\u2019s Law Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like those of many student groups, Harvey and Mumford\u2019s kits contain products \u2014 emergency contraceptive pills, tampons, lube, etc. \u2014 donated by nonprofits and companies. Black Book Sex Ed accepts financial donations as well and uses the money to buy items at big-box stores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The University of Texas-San Antonio didn\u2019t respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Across the country, at Bowie State University in Maryland, a graduate student took a different approach to improving student access to contraceptives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What started as a class project last year for Jakeya Johnson\u2019s master\u2019s degree program in public administration and policy, eventually became state law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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