Emotional ceremony marks signing of contraception bill
by Judith Davidoff ¦ The Capital Times ¦ 14 March 2008 Flanked by two survivors of sexual assault, one with tears welling in her eyes, Gov. Jim Doyle signed a long awaited bill Thursday that requires hospitals to provide emergency contraception to rape victims. "This is one bill I've been working to get on my desk for a long, long time," Doyle said. He credited rape survivors like Linda Gage and Amanda Harrington, who provided testimony before the state Legislature and appeared next to him at the bill signing, with being instrumental to the bill's passage. "I would like to recognize all of the survivors who have been willing to come forward with their stories ... and to tell what they went through," Doyle said. "The survivors really made this happen." Doyle also gave a special shout out to Rep. Terry Musser, a Republican from Black River Falls and the bill's co-author in the Assembly, who fought bruising battles with members of his party over the bill. In fact, when given a loud round of applause by the legislators and advocates at the signing, Musser quipped, "Don't remind my caucus." In brief remarks, an emotional Gage said the new law makes her "proud and honored" to be a Wisconsin resident. "It tells me, my daughter and the women of Wisconsin that our health and well-being does matter to our state government." This is the first time in a decade Wisconsin has a new law on the books that significantly expands access to birth control. The trend, reflected in recent Republican proposals to prohibit the University of Wisconsin System from offering emergency contraception and to ban the state from funding family planning services for low-income women, has been to restrict access to birth control. Emergency contraception, most often packaged as Plan B, is a high dose of birth control pills that, if taken within 72 hours of intercourse, is highly effective at preventing pregnancy. Advocates for sexual assault victims have been lobbying for increased access to emergency contraception for years, buoyed by surveys that showed many Wisconsin hospitals did not stock emergency contraception or offer it routinely to victims of sexual assault. Democratic legislators, including Sen. Judy Robson, D-Beloit, and Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, have tried since 2001 to get a bill passed, but Republicans blocked attempts to even give the legislation a public hearing. With a split legislature this session, the Democrat-controlled Senate easily passed the measure in May, but it advanced in the Republican-controlled Assembly only after Musser signed on as a co-author. Pro-Life Wisconsin, which opposes abortion and says all forms of hormonal contraceptives cause abortions, said today it would likely challenge the law in court. "We are not lying down," lobbyist Matt Sande said. "The law is unconstitutional. It ought to be challenged and we're working on it." Sande said the law violates the Wisconsin Constitution, which prohibits "any control of, or interference with, the rights of conscience" and the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees the right to freely exercise one's religion. Kelda Helen Roys, an attorney and the executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin, told The Capital Times in December any such lawsuit would not get very far. "There is no credible medical or scientific organization that thinks birth control is abortion," Roys said.
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