The Undergraduate Student Government Downtown announced its partnership with Planned Parenthood Generation Action at ASU on Feb. 5 to provide contraceptives, sexual wellness supplies and feminine hygiene products to students.
USGD Vice President of Policy Katie Ritchie, a junior studying public service and public policy with a double major in civic and economic thought and leadership, said the partnership will help provide condoms, lube, pregnancy tests, menstrual products and other supplies to students for free.
The products are available to students via the health and wellness cart in the USGD office, which also offers items like deodorant, toothbrushes and toothpaste, Ritchie said. That office is located in the Student Center @ the Post Office.
That cart is typically available for student use from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Monday through Friday, Ritchie said in a written statement.
"If we don't have anyone in the office at that moment, students can send a note to our instagram and we will do our best to find someone to open the office for them," Ritchie said in the statement. "If we can't at that moment, we will schedule a time with that student to drop by."
Ritchie said the program was easy to put together because USGD "already had the infrastructure of the health and wellness cart set up," which PPGEN then added materials to.
ASU's PPGEN chapter also partnered with the Undergraduate Student Government West in December to provide similar services on the West Valley campus, said Carolina Limon, PPGEN's public outreach and event coordinator and a senior studying criminology and criminal justice.
According to a Planned Parenthood Action Fund webpage, PPGEN is a network of young activists who advocate for reproductive rights and educate young people about sexual health.
At ASU, PPGEN hosts events on campus providing services such as sexual health education and sexually transmitted infection testing. Limon said the partnership with USGD will not provide emergency contraception, but PPGEN will deliver such resources to students on the Tempe and Downtown Phoenix campuses who contact them directly.
Another sexual health club on campus, Devils in the Bedroom, provides emergency contraceptives.
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USGD Student Body President Laura Doyle, a senior studying public service and public policy, said the student government decided against supplying any type of medication, including ibuprofen or acetaminophen, on their wellness cart due to the inability to guarantee constant direct supervision of the cart.
Doyle said the program has not received any backlash.
"USG is a nonpartisan organization, so any message we send is nonpartisan," she said. "This was just a partnership to provide resources."
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Limon said a major goal of PPGEN was to establish places on each campus where students could have access to sexual health and hygiene products.
"The biggest goal was just having somewhere accessible where students know that they can go directly for resources," Limon said. "They don't need to interact with anyone. It's completely private."
For Ritchie, the partnership serves USGD's broader goals of supporting its constituents.
"Oftentimes students are not only needing toothbrushes, toothpaste, but also hygiene products like menstrual products or things to promote sexual health," Ritchie said. "That's our overall mission, just to provide students those basic necessities that they may not be able to access."
Edited by Carsten Oyer, Jack McCarthy, Katrina Michalak and Pippa Fung.
Reach the reporter at spkeelin@asu.edu.
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