Randy Oxford University students splash out hundreds of pounds every year on the morning after pill after having unprotected sex, it emerged today.
Pembroke College currently reimburses the full £26 to each student who needs to buy the morning after pill over the counter.
Most incidences occur on a Saturday night and students are forced to buy the contraceptive from chemists because GP surgeries – which offer the pills for free – don’t open over the weekend.
Last year promiscuous students cost the college, whose alumni include former deputy Prime Minister Michael Heseltine, writer and poet Samuel Johnson and King Abdullah II of Jordan, more than #350.
On Wednesday the Junior Common Room (JCR) debated a motion to cut the amount students were reimbursed by half in a desperate bid to save cash.
Students Annie Smith Kris Blake proposed the motion: “Reimburse only half the cost of the morning-after pill, £13, rather than the full £26.”
The motion added that “a small fortune is being spent by the JCR reimbursing the morning-after pill (over £350 at the last count).”
Yet the motion failed and the college will continue to reimburse the whole cost of the morning after pill.
One student said: “It’s not fair for the JCR to pick on at-risk behaviour.
“I don’t think we should be cutting such an important welfare service.”
Meanwhile another told the debate: “I don’t think it’s a bad thing to make people go to their GP. We already provide condoms.”
Student Rebecca Henshaw added: “Whilst it is a vital service, as accidents do happen, I think the decision was less intended to start charging for the morning after pill and more to encourage students to perhaps think twice about prevention.”
