Good news: The Pennsylvania state House Health and Human Services Committee gave a big win to advocates for crime victims and women’s rights last week, approving 20-7 a bill that would require hospitals to offer emergency contraception to women seeking treatment for sexual assault.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Daylin Leach, D-Montgomery, was drafted in part in response to a 2006 rape case in Lebanon County. The victim sought treatment at Good Samaritan Hospital, but was refused emergency contraception by an emergency room doctor who said it would violate his religious beliefs about abortion.
Leach’s bill would require hospitals to provide rape victims with information about emergency contraception and, if requested, make available the two-pill treatment that’s most effective when taken within 24 hours of unprotected sex.
Similar bills have been considered and passed in other states, even though the Democratic leadership in the Congress has shied away from the issue.
via The Patriot News.
