Increased distribution of pregnancy tests is not necessarily linked to students having more sex or unsafe sex.

According to Cecile Steinberg, assistant director for administrative services at McKinley Health Center, there has been an increase over the last year in the number of free pregnancy tests that are available at the health center and the resource room in the Illini Union. McKinley made the tests available at the pharmacy in the fall of 2000 before they were available at the resource centers the last two years, said nurse practitioner Doris Lawyer.

"There has been an increase every year since we've started," Lawyer said. Going into the fourth year of the program, officials and employees of McKinley have speculated about the cause of the increase but said any reasons they could come up with would remain speculation.

"What we're going to be doing is looking at it a little bit more this next year to see what the reasons might be," said Steinberg. Although Steinberg said it might be too early to tell what a factual cause could be, Lawyer believes that a main cause is word of mouth and the McKinley Web site, where the free tests are mentioned in several of the Web pages. The Web site address is www.mckinley.uiuc.edu.

"I wasn't really surprised at the increase," Lawyer said. "We've been doing this now for some period of time ... the nurses are telling patients they can go to the resource room."

In general, more and more people are using the Web site, which means that more of the services available will be utilized, said Lawyer.

The handout that comes with the pregnancy kit has a list of all services related to possible pregnancy and prenatal care. Although there is counseling — prenatal care and a number of prenatal medications available through McKinley — Steinberg said there has not been an increase in the use of those services. They only have a certain amount of appointments available every year so the only noticeable change would be a decrease.

"I suspect that a great many of the test results that are done are negative," said Lawyer. She also said she thinks many of the students who come in to take the tests may be using it as a security blanket in conjunction with other forms of birth control or because they have noticed irregularities in menstruation while on birth control. Lawyer added that because it's a free service students might be taking advantage.

"I think that a lot of the numbers that are now being picked up in the resource rooms were people who were going out and buying (pregnancy tests) before," said Lawyer. According to www.walgreens.com, depending on the brand and style of tests, they can range in retail value anywhere from $7.99-$19.99. Because students can acquire pregnancy tests privately from McKinley free of charge, they are less likely to purchase them from retail stores. Lawyer also said there has not been an increase in the number of contraceptives that have been distributed following the increase in pregnancy kits.

Neal Horner, a pharmacist in the McKinley pharmacy, said he hadn't noticed an increase in contraceptives or pregnancy tests handed out.

"It's hard to say if there is an increase or not," Horner said.

Lawyer said McKinley has not made the information concerning the increase has not yet been made public knowledge but is not confidential.