Part of a campaign to lower the number of children born in Alaska with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, a state-funded study is placing free pregnancy tests in bars.
Roughly 120 children are born with FAS in Alaska each year. Victims suffer from a variety of mental and physical impairments.
Four dispensers have been installed in bars so far, depicting a woman drinking from a bottle of alcohol, with the stream connected to to the outline of an unborn child.
The $400,000 pilot program will run through June 2016. Proponents say women tend to avoid drinking when they know they are pregnant, but sometimes the pregnancy isn’t detected for several weeks or months, during which time women continue to consume alcohol.
