“Rape victims shouldn’t have to shop for something that amounts to a basic need, we should make it as easy as we can and be compassionate to people going through a horrendous ordeal.”
- Wisconsin State Rep. Jon Richards

Lawmakers and women’s health advocates in Wisconsin are pushing for a law that would make it mandatory to offer the morning after pill to all female rape victims in emergency rooms. The bill comes despite some opposition from legislators who feel individual hospitals should have the choice of whether to provide it.

The Compassionate Care for Rape Victims bill, which serves to inform victims of their legal rights and offer emergency contraception, was passed in the Wisconsin state Senate by a vote of 27-6 in May. But then in September, an amendment was passed by the state Assembly Judiciary Committee that critics say would essentially “gut” the bill by not requiring hospitals and their employees to provide emergency contraception and information.

Jim Sevcik, a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee sophomore said the bill should remain as it was originally written.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” Sevcik said of the amendment. “If these women do become pregnant it could screw up their whole lives. Hospitals should have everything available to them to help people.”

State Rep. Jon Richards said the bill, which legislators hope to vote into law by the end of the year, is something that speaks to our “basic decency” and simply needs to happen. Richards also said and that the amendment proposed by Republicans in the Judiciary Committee serves as nothing but a “giant loophole” that makes it harder for rape victims to get the care they require.

“Rape victims shouldn’t have to shop for something that amounts to a basic need.” Richards said. “We should make it as easy as we can and be compassionate to people going through a horrendous ordeal.”

Mark Gundrum is chair of the Judiciary Committee that passed the amendment but was not available to respond to the Post before deadline. Gundrum is quoted on the Planned Parenthood Web site defending the amendment as follows:

"It's about freedom of religion and not making hospitals that don't believe in birth control hand it out,” said Gundrum on the Web site. “Besides, the Plan B pill and other day-after contraceptives are available over the counter, so if rape victims really want them they can go to a pharmacy and get them."

Only one third of Wisconsin hospital emergency rooms provide emergency contraception onsite “without exception” to rape victims, with the remaining hospitals offering emergency contraception either with “exceptions” or not at all, according to a 2006 survey of 109 Wisconsin hospitals conducted by the Compassionate Care for Rape Victims Coalition. The UWM Norris Health Center is among the minority of clinics that offers emergency contraception, according to a recorded message on the center’s phone information menu.

Eighty-two percent of Wisconsin voters said they supported ensuring access to emergency contraception for victims of rape and incest, according to an August 2004 survey by the CCRV coalition.

Nationally, over 300,000 women are raped each year, resulting in over 25,000 unintended pregnancies and approximately 16,000 abortions. About 22,000 of these pregnancies could be prevented if all women who were raped used emergency contraception, according to a 2007 report from the Wisconsin Alliance for Women’s Health.

Emergency contraception, also known as the morning after pill, is a concentrated dose of birth control medicine that is 99.5 percent effective if taken within 12 hours, and 75 percent effective if taken within 120 hours of unprotected sex, according to a WAWH 2007 report.

The Food and Drug Administration, the American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists all said that emergency contraception does not cause an abortion, and should not be confused with the “abortion pill,” according to the coalition report.

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