Women become unintentionally pregnant every year across the United States and around the world, and college campuses are no exception.
While Tufts Health Service offers many options for students, including Emergency Contraception Pills (ECPs), the recent opening of a new clinic right around the corner from the Medford campus has given students another option in the realm of pregnancy and sexual health.
Plan - the new Planned Parenthood Express Center located at 260 Elm Street in Davis Square - offers "clothes-on" services such as birth control, ECPs, pregnancy testing and sexually transmitted infection screening.
"The express centers are storefront centers in high traffic areas," explained Dianne Luby, the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts President. "It's like a retail location compared to a hospital."
While Tufts students have access to the Health Service on campus for their sexual health needs, Luby said that Plan is an additional resource: "We think it gives them one more option."
Margaret Higham, Medical Director of Tufts University Health Services, was extremely supportive of the new clinic and said she had met with the person who was opening it.
"I think it's terrific," Higham said. "It's a great local resource."
Yet since Health Services is a convenient and familiar option, Higham said that she did not expect to see many students going to Plan while attending Tufts.
Instead, she suggested that it would be a valuable addition for recent graduates, the local community and sexual partners visiting the Tufts campus who are in need of services.
Higham did point out that off-campus clinics such as Plan have certain advantages for current students as well.
"Some students prefer the anonymity of a clinic," Higham said. "They're not likely to see their friends in the waiting room. I think it's good to have both options."
Senior Suzanne Bernstock agreed that having an option off-campus but close in proximity to Tufts was extremely beneficial for students.
"I am very conscious about my health and the risks of being sexually active. But I do not think Tufts offers a judgment-free environment," she said.
"Last time I went for a routine check they marked my file as a binge drinker and told me that a nice girl shouldn't hang out with athletes so much. So yes, I would go to Planned Parenthood, not Tufts, given the option," she said. "[Plan] is a nicer environment where they are happy to help, listen and offer advice instead of offering nonsensical and inapplicable criticism."
Another student, who requested anonymity because she didn't want to be perceived as having received emergency contraception, said that she would also choose to go off-campus.
"I think I would probably go off-campus, just because I feel like it would be a little more anonymous," she said. "I wouldn't really want to run into anybody that I knew."
Other students added that they feel as if Planned Parenthood offers more in the way of confidentiality. For students who don't want their parents finding out about what tests or birth control they have received, an off-campus option seems to be the best route.
"The only issue with [Health Service] that I've heard is having things show up on your bursar bill," senior Emily Kolovson said.
"I've never used either but I'd think that's the only real difference. If students don't want their parents finding out, and if it's going to show up on your bursar, then they would go to planned parenthood," Kolovson added.
For many Tufts students, ignorance of off-campus clinics makes Health Service their only real option.
The same anonymous student remarked that she had been previously unaware that Plan had opened in Davis Square and felt that "a greater outreach effort was needed to inform students about their options for sexual health treatment."
"I think that if they did publicity on-campus, that would probably make people feel a lot better," she said.
"I think that Tufts Health Service is very well staffed and trained as far as being medically certified and capable doctors, but they are poorly trained in their bedside manner," Bernstock added. "So having some place else to go could really make students feel more comfortable."
According to Higham, however, students have increasingly used Tufts Health Service in sexual health emergencies. Specifically, there has been a rise in the use of Plan B - an emergency contraception pill that is available to Tufts students at a low cost at Health Service.
Emergency contraception has been the source of great controversy in the United States, and its turbulent history has been reflected on the Tufts campus.
According to Higham, Plan B use is increasing on campus as it gains publicity.
"The amount of Plan B we dispense has about doubled in the past couple of years," Higham said. "I get a pretty steady stream of students. Most people just come in and get it."
"I think people sort of have a very general knowledge of what Tufts [Health Service] offers," Bernstock said. "But only when really necessary have they looked into [services] further."
