Would you take a pregnancy test in a bar?

Well, you can do that in Minnesota.

From the New York Times:

If you make a  beeline to the stalls, you might miss the pregnancy test dispenser fastened to a wall in the women’s restroom of Pub 500 in Mankato, Minn. There, with the swipe of a credit card, for a $3 fee, you can use a nearby toilet and learn whether you may proceed in good conscience with the martini you were about to order.

It is the first bar in the world to sell pregnancy tests, according to Jody Allen Crowe, 56, founder of the nonprofit Healthy Brains for Children, which aims to reduce the occurrence of fetal alcohol syndrome. (Some experts disagree with Mr. Crowe’s zero-tolerance stance.)

Mr. Crowe installed the dispenser on July 17, two days before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a survey showing that one in 13 pregnant women reported consuming alcohol. Of those who said they had, nearly one in five admitted to binge drinking during that time, knocking down four or more drinks in succession.

“It’s an epidemic,” Mr. Crowe said. “The amount of prenatal exposure to alcohol is really not something people talk about because it’s such a guilt-ridden type of discussion.”

While it may seem more apt to vend pregnancy tests in Vegas than Mankato, a college town in southern Minnesota, Mr. Crowe says the classy pub is a fitting location because the women at highest risk of drinking during pregnancy are professionals with disposable incomes and a proclivity for wine at dinner. They have college degrees and their household incomes exceed $50,000, according to a 1998 report in Obstetrics & Gynecology. And, with nearly half of pregnancies in the United States unplanned, they may be in for a big surprise.

Read the rest.