Sacramento Public Library adds free pregnancy tests at 12 locations

The Sacramento Public Library has become one of the first in the nation to offer free pregnancy tests and sexual health supplies through its new Sexual Health Resource Cabinets.

The initiative launched in February with self-serve cabinets installed at 12 branch locations. Todd Deck, community engagement services manager for the library, said the program was designed to increase access, reduce cost barriers and protect privacy.

Sexual Health Resource Cabinet locations

All of the following Sacramento Public Library locations — except Walnut Grove — are open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Walnut Grove is open 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday.

Table: Gerardo ZavalaSource: Sacramento Public Library. Created with Datawrapper.

“Sacramento is an urban, rural and suburban community, so there are large gaps and distances people have to travel to access these resources freely,” he said. “We thought that we would really be able to capitalize on the library as sort of the community’s living room and just having this resource available that way.” 

Additionally, sexually transmitted infections and diseases are on the rise locally and nationwide. According to a 2021 Sacramento County STI fact sheet, gonorrhea and syphilis cases increased significantly with young adults 20 to 24 years old having higher occurrences than other age groups. 

Deck said this data highlighted the need for sexual health resources in the city. 

“That made us feel that we were really on the right track for expanding it,” he added. 

Planned Parenthood partnered with the library to supply condoms, dental dams, lubricants and educational resources. Pregnancy tests are provided by the library, according to Deck.

Lindsay Barbic is the director of education services for Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, which serves mid-California and Nevada. She said her organization’s goal is to get health education and information along with sexual health resources in an easy to access area while also reducing stigma.

Barbic said the Sacramento Public Library is her organization’s first big library partner, but noted that that might soon change. 

“Since then we’ve had a request from San Jose City wanting to talk about how we can partner with them and provide similar information,” she said.

Courtney Macavinta, vice president of learning for Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, noted that although rhetoric around sex health for youth is conflicting, most parents support comprehensive sex education in schools nationwide. 

“I’m a parent of a teenager in addition to working here,” she added. “All of us want to be able to get our hands on medically accurate, age appropriate information and then to make decisions about that. What I like about the safer sex cabinet idea is I can be making those decisions as I’m looking at the materials.” 

Macavinta added that the cabinets give young adults medically accurate information, which she argued is currently under threat nationwide. 

She was referring to sexual health  information recently being taken down from federal health websites, including the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Although much of what disappeared is now back, some of the material initially taken down included sexual health information.

“People and organizations out of fear and out of pressure are obeying in advance and self-censoring and doing all this stuff,” she emphasized. “Librarians are heroes and libraries are sanctuaries, especially in our cities. You can get so many free materials there, so it makes sense to me that we could expand our partnerships with libraries to include information about health and wellness.”

South Natomas Library was one of two libraries selected for the sex resource cabinets pilot program. Deck said the library was selected because it serves a community with many families and young children. 

Mary Jo O’Connor is a librarian at this location. She said being one of the first libraries in the country to offer anything is exciting, but argued that the fact that free pregnancy tests are being offered at libraries in general is a big deal.

“It’s very cool to be the first, but I think it’s more important that it’s happening, period,” she said. 

To her, a big part of being a librarian means providing access to resources, and this is just one more way she can do that. 

“We have books on the shelf, we have cake pans you can check out, we have menstrual hygiene products in the restroom, and now we have this,” she added.  

Although O’Connor hasn’t received any formal feedback regarding the cabinets, she highlighted a recent interaction she witnessed between a mother and daughter. 

“She pointed out the cabinet and said, ‘If you ever need these resources and you don’t want to ask me, these are here for you,’” O’Connor recounted. “The daughter was clearly whispering, and I overheard the adult say, ‘I’m happy that you feel like you can talk to me, but if that ever changes, I just wanted to point out in case that ever changes.’

“Regardless of how I feel, how staff feel or how other people in the community feel, I watched it with my own eyes, an interaction where somebody was happy that this exists,” she said. “Regardless of whether or not that child uses it, they know it’s there, and that’s important to me.” 

And while these resources are not exclusively available to young adults, O’Connor acknowledged that providing a service like this signals the library’s commitment to serving all age groups — something she said is often overlooked. 

“A lot of people come to use the library as children and then they go off to college where they become adults, and they don’t use the library again until they are parents,” she said. “There’s definitely a whole section of people we lure back with our seed library, our museum passes or our cake pans. You don’t need children or to be a child to come back to the library, and I think this is one way to do it.”

Gerardo Zavala is the communities reporter at CapRadio. CapRadio is a partner of The Intersection and CVJC.