Several local reproductive justice organizations have teamed up to open a vending machine in New Orleans that will carry emergency contraception and condoms.
On Saturday (April 12), at Skeeta Hawk Brewery, representatives from the organizations — the Louisiana Abortion Fund, Women with a Vision, the Reproductive Justice Action Collective and the Birthmark Doula Collective — explained a new project they hope will increase access to reproductive health products.
Items in the vending machine include products such as condoms, emergency contraception, pregnancy tests and birth control pills, but also other medication and health items including Narcan, which is used to revive people who have overdosed on narcotics.
Everything in the vending machine will be free. The vending machine resembles a traditional snack and soda vending machine.
The organizations are still deciding on a location and are considering bars, restaurants or free spaces that have heavy foot traffic. They expect to open the first machine in May and another before the end of the year.
Tyler Barbarin from the Abortion Fund said at the event announcing the vending machine project that with the help of donations, the organizations can bring out more vending machines.
Elyse Degree of Women with a Vision said that these vending machines are important in the post-Roe v. Wade era, where abortion is banned or severely restricted in nearly every Southern state, including Louisiana, where there are no exceptions for rape or incest. Furthermore, Louisiana has classified the drugs mifepristone and misoprostol, which are used in abortions and other medical procedures, as dangerous, controlled substances.
All three of the state’s remaining abortion clinics closed after the Supreme Court struck down the right to abortion in 2022. Louisiana already has some of the highest preterm birth, maternal and infant mortality rates in the United States, according to a 2024 March of Dimes report. Black women in particular are four times likelier to die than white women from pregnancy complications, according to the Louisiana Department of Health.
A 2023 Tulane study also showed that people who live in areas that lack abortion and maternal health care are more likely to give birth prematurely. A 2019 study found that Louisiana consistently ranks among the states in the country with the highest maternal mortality rate.
Transgender and nonbinary Louisianians who were assigned female at birth have also spoken out about how being forced to be pregnant and give birth can trigger gender dysphoria. For trans folks who do want to get pregnant, finding gender affirming care is even harder now that abortion clinics, some of which provide primary health and gender affirming care, have closed in the state.
Degree said that people across New Orleans do not have many resources available to them.
“So it’s really important to make sure folks have access to things that they usually can’t afford or have access to because these times are really difficult,” she said.
The announcement came during Black Maternal Health Week, which is April 11-17 this year. The week is annual and founded by the Black Mamas Matter Alliance as a way to raise awareness around Black birthing people’s experiences.
On Saturday, organizers emphasized that it is perfectly legal to possess birth control and emergency contraception and to share them with others, to clear up any confusion.
Pearl Ricks of the Reproductive Justice Action Collective said that the groups want to reduce the stigma that often surrounds accessing reproductive health products by making sure the items are in a space where people can get them with no questions asked.
Degree described the vending machines as a “love letter to New Orleans,” a place she said where residents are left to fend for themselves due to government neglect.
“Being a New Orleans native, I think New Orleans has been through so much, I feel like, and we’re tired of being resilient,” Degree said. “We’re tired of having to go through all these things.”