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Rell Signs Plan B Law; Changes Still Possible
By HILARY WALDMAN
Courant Staff Writer
May 17 2007
Without fanfare, Gov. M. Jodi Rell on Wednesday signed into law a measure that requires all hospitals to provide emergency contraception to rape victims.
The law has been the subject of intense controversy for two years, primarily because of opposition from the Catholic Church.
Attempts to reach a compromise with the church failed, but lawmakers said they are still open to amending the law before it takes effect Oct. 1 if church leaders can offer an alternative that respects Catholic doctrine while ensuring equal access to care for all rape victims.
Women's advocates lobbied hard for the law after anecdotal reports and some data showed that women accompanied by rape counselors were not given a full dose of the Plan B birth control pills at more than half of the state's 31 hospitals last year.
Only the four Catholic hospitals, however, objected strongly to the mandate that the pills be provided.
Proponents of the mandate praised the governor Wednesday.
"No woman deserves to face bearing the child of a rapist or having an abortion because she was denied a simple course of pills when she needed them the most," said Laura Cordes, director of policy and advocacy for Connecticut Sexual Assault Crisis Services, a coalition of rape crisis centers.
To appease the Catholic Church, lawmakers added a provision that allows hospitals to contract with a third-party provider to give out the contraceptive medication, known as Plan B, rather than forcing any employee to do so.
But Archbishop Henry J. Mansell declined to sign off because the emergency contraception would still be dispensed on the hospital grounds, which, he said, would violate the religious beliefs of the church.
The law signed Wednesday also allows hospitals to administer a pregnancy test to rape victims before providing emergency contraception, but does not cover the Catholic hospitals' current practice of requiring an ovulation test before prescribing Plan B.
It remains unclear how or whether the hospitals might be penalized if they do not comply with the law.
State Sen. Jonathan Harris, D-West Hartford, a key proponent of the law, said the requirement as it stands should satisfy the church.
"I'm happy that the governor signed this important legislation. It's a great day for the women of Connecticut, knowing that they have great protections and a consistent standard of care for victims of rape," he said.
Copyright 2007, Hartford Courant |
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05/07/2007 |
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Church loses twice with Plan B argument |
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Gregory B. Hladky |
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This probably wasn’t the best time for the Roman Catholic Church in the state to deal itself another self-inflicted wound.
After all the horrible publicity about pedophile priests in recent years, picking a fight over denial of emergency contraceptives for rape victims sounds like one of the worst possible public relations moves.
Many state lawmakers are convinced that it was Catholic hierarchy, lead by Archbishop Henry J. Mansell, that ignited the debate over whether Catholic hospitals should give Plan B to all rape victims.
Rape counselors say that there was no difficulty about victims of rape getting emergency contraceptives at the four Catholic hospitals in this state until about 16 months ago. That was when the bishops handed down new rules dealing with rape victims and emergency contraceptives at the church’s hospitals in New Haven, Bridgeport, Waterbury and Hartford.
Barry Feldman, a lawyer for the Catholic hospitals and the bishops, denied there had been any major change.
"All the Catholic hospitals did was to formalize certain protocols," Feldman said last week.
The apparent effect of that change was that rape victims who were found to be ovulating would no longer be given the Plan B contraceptive, which can prevent implantation of a fertilized egg. Church officials and their supporters argued that in such cases, use of the contraceptive would amount to abortion.
But that move prompted activists to survey religious and non-religious hospitals. They found there was no standard for dealing with rape victims and the issue of contraceptives. In 2006, the fight began in the General Assembly to pass a bill requiring all hospitals to offer the victims of rape contraceptives, without sending them to other medical facilities or pharmacies to get them.
Last year, the strenuous opposition of the church killed the bill in a legislative committee. This year, lawmakers were determined to find a compromise that would allow the bill to pass.
During the negotiations, church officials raised the possibility of having a "third party" give the contraceptives to rape victims, and legislators were convinced that was the answer. They proposed allowing hospitals to contract with specially trained nursing experts to counsel rape victims and administer Plan B if the victim wanted it.
But the Catholic Church rejected the compromise, saying it would still require the contraceptives to be given on Catholic hospital property — an argument that frustrated many legislators.
Another key problem was that the Catholic Church in New York and New Jersey had, years ago, accepted virtually the same compromise plan. Why was it morally acceptable on the New York side of the border, but not in Connecticut, Catholic lawmakers asked?
The lack of a convincing response led the House last week to give final approval to the bill and send it to Gov. M. Jodi Rell, who promised to sign it into law.
For the Catholic Church hierarchy, it was a double defeat. Mansell and his colleagues lost both the legislative fight and dealt themselves another public relations blow.
Gregory B. Hladky can be contacted at ghladky@nhregister.com or (860) 524-0719. |
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http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-planb0503.artmay03,0,530187.story
House Approves Plan B Measure
Rell Is Expected To Sign Legislation
By CHRISTOPHER KEATING
Capitol Bureau Chief
May 3 2007
The state House of Representatives granted final legislative approval Wednesday to a bill requiring all Connecticut hospitals to dispense emergency contraception to rape victims, while legislators left the door open for a future accommodation with the Catholic Church on the highly charged issue.
Gov. M. Jodi Rell indicated she is leaning toward signing the bill, which has now been passed by bipartisan, veto-proof margins in both chambers.
"A good-faith effort has been made to achieve a true compromise," Rell said following the House vote. "I have always said that my primary concerns are for the emotional and physical well-being of victims, and while I reserve the right to review final language, I do support the basic concept of this bill."
If signed by Rell, the bill would become law on Oct. 1.
The state's Roman Catholic hospitals have fought the measure for more than a year. A church spokesman declined comment on whether a lawsuit would be filed to challenge the legislation.
While the Catholic hospitals have been at the forefront of the debate, many non-Catholic hospitals also have not had consistent policies on dispensing the so-called Plan B oral contraceptive. Legislators and advocates said that rape victims were denied the contraceptive at various times last year at 18 of the state's 31 hospitals. Overall, 53 rape victims who were accompanied by crisis counselors to various hospitals last year either received no medication at all or did not receive the full dosage. Some received a prescription for emergency contraception - rather than the actual dosage.
Rape victims experienced the inconsistencies at three Catholic hospitals and 15 non-Catholic hospitals last year, according to Connecticut Sexual Assault Crisis Services of East Hartford. Laura Cordes, policy director for the crisis services organization, and legislators declined to reveal the names of the 15 non-Catholic hospitals.
"It has not been our policy to point fingers at individual hospitals," Cordes said after the House vote, which she said represents "a significant victory for women in Connecticut."
The approval, by a vote of 113-36, followed a three-hour debate, the longest so far this session.
The final language of the bill, the product of legislative compromise, says hospitals cannot be forced to provide Plan B to pregnant women. It allows the hospital to contract with an independent provider, such as a physician's assistant or a registered nurse, to provide the morning-after pill.
Unlike last year, Plan B is now available in pharmacies as an over-the-counter medication for those over 18. The drug, however, is still available only by prescription for women under 18, according to the legislature's research office.
Passage of the bill, which was approved by the state Senate last week by a 32-3 vote, came after negotiations broke down between legislators and representatives of the Catholic church. Church officials said they could not agree to dispense the medication on the hospital grounds, even if it was provided by an independent contractor who was not employed by the hospital.
Barry Feldman, a lawyer for St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford, said that Archbishop Henry J. Mansell of the Archdiocese of Hartford had tried unsuccessfully to broker a compromise on the issue. Legislators met with church representatives five times over the past seven weeks on issues such as how the medication could be dispensed.
"He's obviously very disappointed," Feldman said of Mansell. "He regards this as a blow to religious freedom in Connecticut. He believes it's a terrible precedent. ... Will our Connecticut legislature force hospitals to perform abortions? This is a precedent that invites all kinds of speculation."
During a news conference after the vote, House Speaker James Amann, D-Milford, said he would be surprised if Rell does not sign the bill.
He added that he is open to a future compromise and "would love to have the archbishop and the Catholic Conference say we support" a new agreement.
One possibility, Amann said, is that a private area could potentially be set aside in a hospital that could be rented for $1 per year as a walk-in service to help victims.
"There may still be an answer out there," Amann said. "I still believe there's an answer somewhere."
During Wednesday's debate, proponents said they were trying to ensure an across-the-board policy that would be followed by hospitals statewide.
"Fundamentally, this is not an issue of religion," said Rep. Denise Merrill, D-Mansfield, the co-chairwoman of the legislature's appropriations committee.
"This is an issue of women's health. At bottom, we need a consistent standard of care at every hospital."
Contact Christopher Keating at ckeating@courant.com.
Copyright 2007, Hartford Courant
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Senate Takes Plan B Stance
Vote: All Hospitals Must Offer It To Rape Victims
By MARK PAZNIOKAS
Courant Staff Writer
April 26 2007
The state Senate dealt Connecticut's Catholic bishops a lopsided political defeat Wednesday by requiring all hospitals to offer emergency contraception for rape victims.
Only hours after the bishops formally rejected legislative language accepted by Catholic clergy in other states, the Senate voted 32-3 to approve the emergency-contraception legislation.
The bishops' rejection - despite a provision allowing Catholic hospitals to use other than hospital personnel to administer the drug - drove away some of the church's strongest allies in the General Assembly.
The stance by the Connecticut Catholic Conference also appears to have set the stage for easy passage by the House. Gov. M. Jodi Rell, who opposed similar legislation last year, said she was inclined to sign the compromise.
Legislators struggled Wednesday to understand why legislation embraced by Catholic bishops in New York and New Jersey was rejected by Hartford Archbishop Henry J. Mansell and Bridgeport Bishop William E. Lori.
"The bishops see things differently," said Barry Feldman, a lawyer for St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center, who has been a spokesman on the issue for the Connecticut Catholic Conference.
Unlike abortion, which the Catholic Church universally opposes as the taking of life, the Vatican has dictated no position on Plan B, an emergency contraceptive that can prevent conception for up to 72 hours after intercourse.
"There are some issues on which the church has not definitively prescribed any rulings," Feldman said. "And this is one of them."
The Connecticut bishops fear that Plan B could prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in the womb, which they equate with abortion.
In New York and New Jersey, the bishops were satisfied by a requirement that rape victims be tested for pregnancy before Plan B was administered.
The same provision is in the Connecticut bill, as well as a provision considered earlier by the bishops: Allow the drug to be given by other than hospital personnel.
Sen. Jonathan Harris, D-West Hartford, the co-chairman of the public health committee, told legislators Wednesday that he happily seized on the "third-party" language as a means to comfortably avoid a possible collision of church and state.
But Mansell and Lori notified Harris and other legislators that after consulting with bio-ethicists they could not agree to the compromise, because the hospitals would have to contract with the third parties who would administer the drug.
The bishops also preferred that rape victims be tested to determine if they are ovulating before administering the drug.
Feldman told reporters that contracting with the third parties would create too close a relationship for the Catholic hospitals.
"It is a question of the extent of the Catholic hospitals' cooperation and the extent to which hospital employees or agents actually participate in the act of administration of the drug," Feldman said.
For many legislators, that was too fine a line to comprehend, especially since bishops in nearby states have taken a contrary view. Minnesota bishops also have accepted similar legislation.
"What I struggle with is if I was a Catholic in New York, this was OK. But as a Catholic in Connecticut, this is not OK," said Sen. David Cappiello, R-Danbury. "I could not get my arms around that."
Sen. Sam Caligiuri, R-Waterbury, who represents a heavily Catholic constituency, said the state clearly had a compelling interest in requiring all hospitals to provide adequate and consistent care for rape victims.
Because of the potential conflict with religious rights, the state is obligated to tailor a narrow solution.
"I believe the bill does just that," Caligiuri said.
Sen. Joan Hartley, D-Waterbury, a Catholic who typically votes with the Catholic Conference, said she could not Wednesday.
Hartley recalled the rape of a player on a girls' basketball team she organized years ago and said she had to side with rape victims.
Senate Minority Leader Louis C. DeLuca, R-Woodbury, offered an amendment that would have allowed the state's four Catholic hospitals - in Hartford, New Haven, Waterbury and Bridgeport - to inform rape victims where they could obtain the drug. It failed. DeLuca also said the bill was unnecessary because every city with a Catholic hospital also has at least one other hospital.
DeLuca, Sen. Dan Debicella, R-Shelton, and Sen. Donald DeFronzo, D-New Britain, voted against the bill. DeFronzo said he wanted more time for the church to seek a compromise, though he supported the bill.
Contact Mark Pazniokas at mpazniokas@courant.com.
Copyright 2007, Hartford Courant |
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04/26/2007 |
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Catholic leaders stung as rape victim bill advances |
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Gregory B. Hladky , Capitol Bureau Chief |
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-HARTFORD — A compromise plan to have outside nurses give emergency contraceptives to rape victims at all Connecticut
The bill passed the Senate on a 32-3 vote and now goes to the state House, where advocates of the legislation are predicting a similar victory.
Senators who had previously opposed requiring Catholic hospitals to provide contraceptives to rape victims said Wednesday they couldn’t understand why the Connecticut Catholic church has rejected the same compromise accepted by the Catholic churches in New York and New Jersey.
"I could not get my arms around that," said state Sen. David Cappiello, R-Danbury, who said he lives about half a mile from the New York border. "It would be OK in New York or New Jersey, but it’s not OK here."
"Ultimately, I had to fall on the side of rape victims," Cappiello said.
State Sen. Sam F.S. Caligiuri, R-Waterbury, also supported the compromise, saying the debate had come down to "a compelling state interest (to protect rape victims) and the opinions of some Catholics in Connecticut."
Supporters of the legislation also cited the differing stances of the Catholic churches in the different states. "What is ethical (for Catholic hospitals) in New York ? and what is ethical in New Jersey, is evidently something that is not ethical in Connecticut
Gregory B. Hladky can be contacted at ghladky@nhregister.com, or (860) 524-0719. |
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©New Haven Register 2007 |
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http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/op_ed/hc-contraception0325.artmar25,0,3776114.story
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Rape Victims Need Contraception - Not A Runaround
Dr. Steve Fleischman
March 25 2007
As an obstetrician and gynecologist, I'm increasingly frustrated to see one of the great advances in improving the status of women - contraception - become swept up in a war of words. Evidence of this war on contraception is plainly visible here in our most moderate of states, where the Connecticut General Assembly, for the second year in a row, is considering legislation requiring all hospitals to offer emergency contraception to victims of rape who seek care and consolation in a hospital emergency room.
Offering emergency contraception to patients is the accepted medical standard of care by most national medical organizations. Some hospitals just need to clarify their policies to make sure this happens in the emergency room every time, for every victim of rape, regardless of whether she thinks to ask for emergency contraception or has even heard of this means of preventing pregnancy after unprotected or unwelcome sex. For these hospitals, it's a simple matter of instituting a clear protocol.
Other hospitals, after years of quietly dispensing emergency contraception, have recently developed explicit policies to limit access to it, based upon their religious views. In trying to make their point to legislators, some have even mischaracterized the medication and its method of action. They have confused the public about the medical details surrounding the onset of pregnancy, claiming that use of emergency contraception during ovulation may be considered an abortion.
Medical science defines pregnancy as beginning upon successful implantation of a fertilized egg in the uterus. Therefore, an abortion can only be performed after implantation. Because emergency contraception has no effect once implantation has occurred, it is simply contraception - no more, no less. (Emergency contraception is not the same thing as RU-486 mifepristone, or the abortion pill.)
Some assert that rape victims should be subjected to an ovulation test before receiving emergency contraception. Any woman who has tried to use such a test to become pregnant knows that they often give inaccurate or false results if done with a urine sample not taken first thing in the morning or if a woman is taking common asthma medications or certain antibiotics, is peri-menopausal, has recently taken oral contraceptives or has been drinking alcohol.
The only reason to administer the test appears to be to support withholding emergency contraception from the patient if she is ovulating. This is unthinkable - depriving the patient of the very medication she may need most.
The majority of medical, scientific and public health professionals support immediately offering emergency contraception to all rape victims who are at risk of pregnancy from the assault when they receive treatment in any hospital emergency department. Administration of a pregnancy test (not an ovulation test) can be an acceptable medical practice to determine whether the rape victim was already pregnant before the assault.
Lawmakers are considering many important issues, such as how to craft a health care system that is fair and affordable to all. Whether to offer the means of preventing pregnancy to someone who has just experienced one of humanity's most heinous crimes seems pretty straightforward to me. All rape victims should be provided the full dose of emergency contraception in all Connecticut hospital emergency rooms.
Hundreds of women will be raped in our state this year. The possibility of pregnancy is one of a victim's greatest fears, and one that can almost certainly be alleviated by quickly providing the victim with emergency contraception. This is a solution so simple that it's incredible, in this day and age, that we're even debating it.
Steve Fleischman, M.D., is an assistant clinical professor at Yale University School of Medicine. He is a member of the Connecticut section of the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists.
Copyright 2007, Hartford Courant |
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03/21/2007 |
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‘My God, what if I am pregnant?’ |
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A New Haven |
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All state hospitals should make emergency contraception available to women who are raped.
After hearing state Rep. Deborah Heinrich’s story of her rape as a young woman, state lawmakers must have hearts of stone if they fail to pass a law requiring all hospitals to provide emergency contraception to women who have been attacked.
Heinrich, a Madison Democrat, is now 38 and the mother of two. As an 18-year-old college freshman, she was attacked by a male acquaintance who, in a violent struggle, ripped out clumps of her hair. After the attack, she was overcome by "numbness" because of the brutal assault. "But slowly, the most terrifying thought pressed through the fog: My God, what if I am pregnant?"
Heinrich told the story of her rape at a press conference as part of a push to pass the legislation, which died in the legislature last year because of opposition from the state’s Catholic hospitals.
The hospitals refuse to provide emergency contraception to rape victims if they are ovulating, although the drug prevents conception rather than causes an abortion. Instead, these brutalized women are referred elsewhere for contraception, even though it is most effective within 24 hours of a rape.
Heinrich said of her own horrifying experience that she would not have had the stamina to go elsewhere if refused needed care at a hospital.
Although Catholic hospitals have led opposition to the requirement that they fully treat women who are raped, other hospitals have failed to offer emergency contraception.
Rape victims should expect the same standard of care at every hospital in Connecticut. They should not be sent out in the night in search of a physician or pharmacist who will provide them a contraceptive.
As we noted last year when this legislation was first introduced, New York, New Jersey, Washington |
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No Woman Turned Away
March 19 2007
A lawmaker who stepped forward Tuesday to tell her secret - that she was raped as a college student - reasonably asks why, 20 years later, women must still have to worry about getting pregnant from their assailants.
With emergency contraception now widely available, no brutalized woman should have to first undergo a hospital test before receiving the so-called Plan B pill - or hail a cab for another hospital if she fails the test.
State Rep. Deborah W. Heinrich was brave to bare her secret at a Hartford rally in support of a state law requiring all hospitals that get public funds to offer emergency birth control. That includes Catholic hospitals, which refuse to give so-called Plan B pills to women who are ovulating. Instead, they send them on their way to find a more compassionate hospital or pharmacy.
Time is critical with Plan B. It is 95 percent effective if taken within 24 hours of a rape.
The Catholic hospitals argue that administering Plan B is tantamount to abortion. To force them to provide it interferes with their religious freedom. Right-to-life groups point to the manufacturer's claim that it may stop a fertilized egg from attaching to a uterus - and pregnancy begins, they believe, at fertilization.
But obstetric organizations and even federal regulations says pregnancy begins at implantation, when the egg can be nurtured. And some researchers find no evidence that Plan B interferes with a fertilized egg.
The Guttmacher Institute says seven states now require emergency rooms to dispense contraception on request to sexual assault victims. They include Connecticut's more sympathetic neighbors New York and Massachusetts. Some hospitals who object to emergency contraception have agreed to let third parties deliver it.
Copyright 2007, Hartford Courant |
http://www.courant.com/news/health/hc-planb0314.artmar14,0,177125.story
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A Personal Cause
By HILARY WALDMAN
Courant Staff Writer
March 14 2007
Twenty minutes before state Rep. Deborah W. Heinrich stepped in front of a microphone Tuesday, she decided to share the secret she had kept from even her immediate family for the past 20 years: that she had been raped.
The setting was a packed hallway in the noisy atrium of the Legislative Office Building in Hartford. The occasion: a rally to again drum up support for a law that would require all hospitals to offer emergency birth control to rape victims.
Heinrich, a Madison Democrat starting her second term, had helped push for the law last year, before it died in the final days of the legislative session amid strong opposition from the Roman Catholic Church.
If there was any chance of getting it through this year, Heinrich concluded, she would have to stand up and tell.
"I heard from a lot of my colleagues that they were not hearing from the rape victims," Heinrich said. So with her voice sometimes breaking, but mostly strong, she stepped before reporters, victim advocates and some of the state's highest-ranking elected officials and told her story.
The 38-year-old mother of two recounted the details of a terrifying night when she was a freshman at an out-of-state college and a man she knew tore out clumps of her hair in pursuit of her.
After the numbness passed, she said, "slowly the most horrifying thought passed through the fog: My God, what if I am pregnant?"
At the time, Plan B emergency contraception was not available. But Heinrich says she cannot believe that even now some rape victims must wait and worry because not all hospitals offer it in the emergency room.
Although the state's four Catholic hospitals - St. Francis in Hartford, St. Mary's in Waterbury, St. Vincent's in Bridgeport and the Hospital of St. Raphael in New Haven - have been the most vocal opponents, the problem is not limited to Catholic hospitals, victim advocates say.
Last year, more than one-quarter of rape victims accompanied to a Connecticut hospital by a rape crisis counselor were not given a full dose of emergency contraception in the emergency room, according to Connecticut Sexual Assault Crisis Services, a coalition of rape counselors. About 400 women get rape crisis services in a given year. Catholic and secular hospitals were included in the survey.
The Catholic hospitals, according to their own survey, treated 73 rape victims in the first six months of 2006. All of those at risk of pregnancy - 26 patients - were given an ovulation test as required by church leaders in Connecticut. And all were given Plan B because the test showed they were not ovulating, said Barry Feldman, a spokesman for the hospitals.
The other 47 patients, he said, did not need emergency contraception for a variety of reasons including that they were already taking birth control pills or had been sterilized, they were in menopause, the attack was reported too late or because it was determined that no penetration had occurred, Feldman said.
After the rally, Heinrich, Feldman and a contingent from the Connecticut Right-to-Life group testified before the General Assembly's human services committee, which is considering the proposed Plan B hospital mandate.
Feldman repeated the church's contention that emergency contraception can amount to abortion and that requiring the Catholic hospitals to provide it tramples on their rights of religious freedom.
On a more practical note, he added, all of Connecticut's Catholic hospitals are in big cities, minutes from other hospitals and pharmacies that are free to dispense the high-dose birth control pills.
Victim advocates have argued, however, that it is unreasonable to expect a rape victim who may be physically or psychologically injured to travel from hospital to hospital, or to find a pharmacy, when the pill could be given on the spot.
The drug has been shown to be 95 percent effective in blocking a pregnancy if it is taken within 24 hours of unprotected sexual relations. That effectiveness drops to about 60 percent when taken 48 to 72 hours after sex, according to the manufacturer.
After bringing tears and stunned silence to those gathered at the pre-hearing rally, Heinrich told her story again to lawmakers in the human services hearing.
Later, Cindy Speltz, a woman from St. Paul, Minn., who was representing the group opposed to the Plan B mandate, told lawmakers that she bore a daughter as a result of being raped 31 years ago. With that daughter, Jennifer Maas, by her side, Speltz said she was glad Plan B was not available.
"I have come here today," Speltz said, "to emphasize the intrinsic value of my child's life."
Judging by their comments, lawmakers remain widely split on whether to pass the Plan B requirement. Even if it passes, it is likely to face a court challenge on religious freedom grounds.
But on Tuesday, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said that in other states, including New York,
Copyright 2007, Hartford Courant |
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03/14/2007 New Haven |
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Area lawmaker reveals horror of rape as she pushes bill |
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Mary E. O’Leary , Register Topics Editor |
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HARTFORD — State Rep. Deborah Heinrich, D-Madison, in a dramatic moment at the Capitol Tuesday, told lawmakers of the "soul-crushing" trauma of being raped while a college student, as she argued in favor of emergency contraception for rape victims.
The General Assembly is considering a bill that would mandate that all hospitals in the state, including Catholic hospitals, make emergency contraception available to all sexual assault victims, a program that has been successfully adopted by Catholic institutions in other states.
The Catholic hospitals in Connecticut first administer a test to determine if the rape victim has ovulated, in which case she is sent elsewhere for contraception.
Heinrich, who took the legislators and rape counselors gathered at a press conference on the bill by surprise, had to pause several times as she told her story.
Now 38, Heinrich said she was 18 when she was attacked by an acquaintance her freshman year at an out-of-state college. A valedictorian in her high school, she said she had big plans for her future, plans which, "needless to say," did not include becoming a teenage mother.
"In one fell swoop, in a moment of intense violence, that choice was taken away from me. Afterwards, I remember my first reaction was to get down on my hands and knees and try to collect the clumps of my hair that were ripped out, as if at least retrieving these small pieces of myself ... might bring back the part of my soul that was so brutally stolen from me," Heinrich said to the stunned group.
She said what followed was a "numbness" that prevented her from crying and left her paralyzed. "But slowly, the most terrifying thought pressed through the fog: My God, what if I am pregnant?" Heinrich said.
The legislator said her reaction was not unique and it took a tremendous effort to trust someone enough to report the rape.
Any woman who finds herself in this position "should not have to stop and wonder which hospital will or will not offer her the highest standard of care if she has been raped," Heinrich said.
"Every woman in the state must be assured that when she finds that last ounce of strength, that last bit of trust that will allow her to enter the doors of the hospital, that no matter which hospital she manages to stumble into, that she will be assured of having the highest standards of care. For a rape victim, that must include being offered emergency contraception," Heinrich said.
Personally, the legislator said, she would not have had the stamina to go elsewhere if told to do so by a hospital.
"This is about victims, it is about access to care," she said. It is about not being victimized a second time by becoming pregnant by her rapist, she said.
Heinrich said only her immediate family knew about the rape before Tuesday.
State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said he was ready to defend the proposed law, which has been found constitutional in other challenges and is not a violation of religious freedom. He said Catholic hospitals abide by it in New York, New Jersey, Washington, Massachusetts
Mary E. O’Leary can be reached at 789-5731 or moleary@nhregister.com |
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