Putting Free Pregnancy Tests in Bars Is a Great Idea

As any sexually active woman who has sex with men will attest, there will invariably be times when you get that Shit, am I pregnant!? jolt up your spine. Even if precautions have been taken, sometimes you just have to know there and then. It can't wait.

This fearful pondering won't always happen when you're in the comfort of your own home with a pregnancy test stashed away in a cupboard somewhere. Sometimes it'll come when you're out having beer with your mates. So what if you were in a bar and could nip to the toilet and find out if you were pregnant then and there?

Wouldn't it be great, if you do have a niggling suspicion, to know before you start drinking and could potentially harm the fetus inside you?

This year, bars in Alaska are installing pregnancy test vending machines in 20 bars and restaurants across the state as part of a state-funded move by the University of Alaska to combat Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder—the brain damage that can occur in children of mothers who drank while they were pregnant.

The goal appears to be target women who don't know they're pregnant, and "isn't about targeting chronic alcoholics," Jody Allen Crowe, founder of the non-profit Healthy Brains For Children (who did a similar thing two years ago in Minnesota), told ABC News. "Right now, 50 percent of pregnancies across the nation are unexpected. This is really focusing on women who are casual drinkers, people who would never drink if they knew they were pregnant."

Mothers-to-be are bombarded with advice about what and what not to do when pregnant—advice that can be subjective depending on the source—but not boozing is, save a small glass of something once in a while (although some outlets claim avoiding drink altogether is the safest option), a complete no-no.

Interestingly, Alaska's state senator, Pete Kelly, who has been a vocal advocate for the free distribution of pregnancy tests, doesn't support distributing free birth control in bars.

So for a woman to be able to get quick access to a free (the tests are courtesy of a two-year, $400,000 government program that will chart the effectiveness of anti-drinking campaigns aimed at Alaskan women, who are, apparently, 20 percent more likely to binge drink than women in other states) test to check whether she's pregnant before drinking is all kosher. However, for a woman to be able to buy condoms when out drinking to ensure that she has safe sex later that evening if she chooses, and can make a sensible choice about preventing pregnancy, is another?

Puzzling. But lest we forget, this state's previous governor had all manner of sage beliefs surrounding women and pregnancy. Makes you miss her being around, doesn't it?

It appears we're going to have a similar project roll out later this year here in the UK, too. How could it not be a great idea? Buying a pregnancy test can, however grown-up and confident you are, be a bit embarrassing—not to mention expensive—hence why they're often shoplifted.

There are, of course, detractors. "Bars in Alaska to Offer Pregnancy Tests to Drunk Woman," said Vocativ, with a fantastic and highly appropriate image used to illustrate. Takepart.org said, "[A pregnancy test] is 'probably' not on the night-on-the-town prep list of the average American woman."

Twitter users have also thrown such staggering nuggets of wisdom as, "If you're taking a pregnancy test at a bar in Alaska you might want to re-evaluate your life," as if there could ever be a perfect location for peeing on a stick. Should we only ever do it in our home bathroom while candles flicker, some Nag Champa smolders, and Enya plays from a portable stereo?

The assumption that the goal with this scheme is to spank some sense into those drunk, wayward floozies is clearly abundant. But at least it's trying something.

If you had even the slightest, back-of-the-mind concern—maybe you're a few days late, are feeling a bit sick—wouldn't having the opportunity to check before ordering that margarita be a great thing, rather than drinking through the worry and doing a test the next day and being faced with a whole new layer of fear?

If the goal of the free-pregnancy-tests-in-bars initiative is to expand access, and if placing them in pub toilets gets the most attention, isn't it a bit of a no-brainer?