New reproductive health vending machine opens in Indianapolis, offering access to free health essentials
By Casey Zanowic
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INDIANAPOLIS (WRTV) — A range of reproductive health products and other essentials, all free of charge, for anyone in need. That’s what a new vending machine on the north side is offering to those in the community.
“We want to make sure that people have access to that in a safe, accessible, beautiful way, without judgment, without scrutiny,” Anjuli Shivshanker, a volunteer with Indiana Task FORCE, said.
Everything from pads and tampons, condoms and Plan B, even Narcan and Fentanyl test strips. Those are the variety of products available now at All Souls Unitarian Church of Indianapolis.
“It is becoming more and more difficult to access our basic needs right now,” Reverend Katie Romano Griffin, Senior Pastor at All Souls, stated. “And so I think having this vending machine, and near a food pantry, is critical to meet the needs of our community.”
It’s a partnership between the church and the Indiana Task FORCE: Feminists Organizing & Re-imagining Civic Engagement.
“The idea for the vending machines came because here in Indiana we have some of the strictest abortion laws in the country and people want to make them even stricter,” Shivshanker, who coordinates these machines statewide, explained.
She and other volunteers work with local churches and small businesses to provide better access to reproductive health products.
“We believe, fully, that if it is a choice to have kids or not, you have to be able to get the supplies to make that choice,” Shivshanker said.
As a Unitarian clergy, Rev. Romano Griffin knew these products would be beneficial to her community.
“‘Unitarian universalists have a long history of supporting reproductive justice,” Romano Griffin explained. “If you have to make a choice between contraception and feeding yourself or someone you love, that is an incredibly difficult choice to make, and this machine helps [make that easier].”
The goal is to make these products an option, long-term, for anyone in need.
“It’s about people being able to access their full humanity, feeling empowered and not experiencing that shame that comes from a lack of access,” Serena Van Orman, an instructor in Human Sexuality at Indiana University of Indianapolis, stated.
“‘I hope that in years, we don’t need this… I hope that, that accessibility there it’s global,” Romano Griffin said.
The vending machine was just opened at the church on Sunday. They hope to continue stocking it with more products in the near future.
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