EDITORIAL – Hospitals should provide EC, info

Emergency contraception, often known as the “morning-after pill,” or “Plan B,” has been… Emergency contraception, often known as the “morning-after pill,” or “Plan B,” has been somewhat controversial ever since it appeared on the national scene.

Opinions on emergency contraception vary widely, but one instance in which people of many different ideologies agree the morning-after pill is a positive thing is that of rape. The thought that a woman should have to undergo suffering beyond that of being a rape victim, by becoming pregnant with her assailant’s child, is simply terrible – especially considering the safety of emergency contraception.

Thankfully, Pennsylvania lawmakers are considering a proposal that would require hospitals to inform rape victims of Plan B, and to provide it for those women who wish to take it. There are a few possible snags to Pennsylvania’s passage of the law, which currently exists in some form in only a few states. Hopefully, all involved parties will realize that this proposal is not pushing some insidious agenda, but merely takes the health and best interests of rape victims into consideration.

The large swaths of rural Pennsylvania served only by private, Catholic hospitals have proven one of the largest stumbling blocks thus far in the bill’s passage. Under the Religious Freedom Protection Act, privately funded hospitals would not need to comply with the new requirements. Because they are often the only hospitals around, and because of the time-sensitive nature of emergency contraception, if private hospitals are not required to follow the same procedures as those which are state-funded, the proposal will leave many potential rape victims without recourse.

The Catholic church does actually permit use of emergency contraception in rape cases, provided it is taken within 24 hours of the assault, so there is still hope for the proposal. The morning-after pill, in essence just a very high dosage of the same agents found in regular birth control pills, does not – in fact, cannot – terminate a pregnancy, but works by keeping the egg from either being fertilized and/or implanting itself on the uterine wall.

Even though it is still frowned upon by some anti-abortion groups, the fact that the church sees emergency contraception as beneficial is heartening. Some sort of agreement can and must be reached which protects private hospitals and also private citizens.

House Democratic Leader Bill DeWeese, D-Waynesburg, was quoted in the Post-Gazette as saying, “This is reasonable legislation, compassionate legislation. I cannot fathom any troglodyte on the floor of the House or Senate being against this.”

If he is right, it is only a matter of time until the state’s rape victims will be protected from enduring yet another round of hardship – and the sooner, the better.