Alaska will start dispensing free pregnancy tests in bar bathrooms.
The state will provide funding for pregnancy test dispensers to be installed in the bathrooms of 20 Alaska bars and restaurants starting in December, the Anchorage Daily News reported.
Researchers hope to use the $400,000 effort to determine if posters warning women about drinking while pregnant work better when hung on a dispenser rather than a wall.
"This is not a strategy for the chronic alcoholic who is drinking regardless of whatever message they see," Jody Allen Crowe, founder of a Minnesota non-profit, told the Anchorage Daily News. "This is really focused on the 50 percent of unexpected pregnancies, to find out they are pregnant as early as possible."
Over 30 percent of married women have unexpected pregnancies, as well as 70 percent of 20 to 29-year-olds, Healthy Brains for Children reported.
Unexpected pregnancies leave the fetus vulnerable to alcohol exposure, which can cause lifelong damage such as Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.
Condoms will also be available in the bathrooms that dispense pregnancy tests; the condoms will not be paid for with a state grant, the Anchorage Daily News reported.
"What I'm going to try and do is place these dispensers in facilities in which there are condom dispensers or they're OK with us making condoms available," Driscoll said.
The pregnancy test dispensers are mounted on the wall and are about one foot wide; they cost obout $800 each. About 5,000 tests will be distributed over a 12-month period.
"The Alaska effort is going to be very important to see empirical evidence. How does this impact the thinking of women in alcohol establishments?" Crowe said.
The Alaska Anchorage Institute of Circumpolar Health Studies, which proposed the study, will also put up posters without the dispensers in other cities.
"That's probably a relatively small percentage of women who will see the test kit dispenser and will actually use it," Driscoll said.
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