Republican Health Committee Chairs Snub Rape Victims
Underheim, Roessler absent from Oshkosh hearing on Compassionate Care Bill
Oshkosh, WI – Over 50 people crowded the Oshkosh Public Library’s meeting room for a hometown hearing on the Compassionate Care for Rape Victims Bill (SB 166/AB 305).
Victims’ rights and health care advocates organized the hearing after the State Assembly and Senate health committee chairs (Rep. Gregg Underheim, R-Oshkosh, and Sen. Carol Roessler, R-Oshkosh) refused to allow the public to be heard on the measure. All committee members were invited to the hearing, but no Republicans showed up, even though it was held in the chairs’ backyard.
The bill would remedy disparities in health care for thousands of Wisconsin women, ensuring that all sexual assault survivors receive standard treatment required by American Medical Association guidelines. These include receiving information about and access to emergency contraception, a high dose of ordinary birth control pills that can prevent pregnancy if taken within 120 hours following an assault.
Several Democratic legislators made the drive to Winnebago County to hear the testimony of sexual assault nurse examiners, mental health professionals, students, and community leaders in support of the Compassionate Care for Rape Victims Bill. Sen. Jon Erpenbach (D-Middleton), Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Madison), and Rep. Terese Berceau (D-Madison) listened to citizens concerned about inadequate care for rape survivors and expressed frustration with the refusal to give the bill a hearing. Local notables, including Assembly candidate Gordon Hintz, also spoke in support of this common-sense health care measure.
“It is frankly shameful that rape survivors have to beg Republican legislators to ensure that they get the AMA’s minimum standard of care,” said Kelda Helen Roys, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin, who testified at the hearing. “Medical experts agree that emergency contraception should be available over the counter, yet anti-birth control conservatives will not even act to stop the re-victimization of the most vulnerable women in our state.”
Over 80 percent of Wisconsinites support ensuring access to emergency contraception (also called Plan B or the morning-after pill) for rape victims, and two out of every three voters in the state say they would probably or definitely not vote for someone who would allow hospitals to deny women access to EC.
Overwhelming public support for birth control will create electoral problems for Underheim, Roessler, and other Republican legislators who have lead attacks on emergency contraception and other basic health care for women. NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin will continue to educate voters about these threats, and about the importance of EC in preventing unintended pregnancy.
A copy of NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin’s testimony is attached below.
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TESTIMONY OF KELDA HELEN ROYS
ON BEHALF OF NARAL PRO-CHOICE WISCONSIN
SUPPORTING 2005 SB 166/AB 305, COMPASSIONATE CARE FOR RAPE VICTIMS BILL
To: Members of the Wisconsin State Legislature
From: Kelda Helen Roys, Esq., Executive Director of NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin
Re: Support for SB 166/AB 305, Compassionate Care for Rape Victims Bill
Date: October 24, 2005
Good morning. On behalf of our over 25,000 statewide members, I thank you for coming to hear us discuss this very important public safety and women’s health issue. NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin believes in a culture of freedom and personal responsibility – that means ensuring that women have the full range of reproductive options available to them, including preventing unintended pregnancy through contraception.
At issue today is whether the basic quality of care a sexual assault survivor receives should depend on which emergency room she is closest to. Simply put, should a rape victim living in an area served by a religiously affiliated hospital receive worse – and substandard – care than one who lives near a University hospital? Should a rural woman suffer greater risk of unintended pregnancy following a rape than an urban one?
Before us is a bill that would guarantee a minimum, base level of treatment for all women in Wisconsin who survive a sexual assault. It sets a fundamental standard of care required by American Medical Association guidelines. Who among us – who in the legislature – believes that Wisconsin women do not deserve to receive the standard of care recommended by the AMA, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners, and other medical professionals and victims advocates? Unfortunately, Republicans in the state legislature, starting with Rep. Gregg Underheim and Sen. Carol Roessler, both of Oshkosh, are blocking the Compassionate Care for Rape Victims Act – refusing to grant this important measure a hearing.
Their refusal leaves thousands of Wisconsin women with inadequate post-assault care. AMA guidelines require that rape victims be counseled about and offered emergency contraception, yet NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin’s 2002 Reproductive Access Project revealed that fewer than half of Wisconsin emergency rooms dispense emergency contraception. Three-quarters of the state’s Catholic hospitals refuse to provide EC to rape victims, even though 41% of all emergency visits happen at Catholic hospitals – the highest percentage in the nation.
This spring, we conducted a study of access to emergency contraception at pharmacies, and what we found underscores the need for rape victims to have information and access to EC when they are at the hospital. Statewide, half of all pharmacies do not stock emergency contraception. Here in Oshkosh, that holds true, meaning that a woman only has a 50% chance of getting the medicine she needs when she goes to the pharmacy. Even worse, over a third of pharmacies here in town gave women incorrect information about emergency contraception.
Yet Oshkosh’s current state representative, Gregg Underheim, does not seem at all concerned that a woman who just survived a violent assault may have to drive all over Winnebago County, hoping to find a pharmacy that carries the medication she needs – and a pharmacist who can give her accurate patient counseling.
By refusing to grant a hearing on this bill, Rep. Underheim has effectively guaranteed that many women in the state will not receive the necessary, compassionate care required by the AMA. We should never allow survivors of rape to be re-victimized by giving them sub-standard, incomplete, haphazard medical treatment.
Others here today will discuss the EC’s pharmacology, provide the staggering sexual assault statistics, explain the psychological and physical importance of timely EC access for rape victims, and show that this bill complies with the Religious Directives for Catholic Hospitals.
I hope to give a larger context to this bill, however. NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin believes all women have the right to contraception, including EC, because we believe in building a culture of freedom and personal responsibility. Using birth control and other preventative care is a healthy, responsible choice – it’s taking responsibility for our bodies and our lives. The vast majority of Wisconsinites want greater access to emergency contraception not just for rape victims but for all women. Emergency contraception reduces the need for abortion and protects women from unintended pregnancy.
It is frankly shameful that women in our state have to fight anti-birth control Republican legislators to get even this tiny concession – simply making sure rape victims can have EC if they want it. Two expert FDA panels have already determined that EC should be available over the counter as it is in so many other countries. Eight states have access to EC directly from the pharmacy, saving women a trip to their doctors.
Over 80 percent of Wisconsin voters favor making sure all rape victims have access to EC. This should not be a partisan issue – it is simply common sense. It is time to stop the war on birth control and stop discriminatory practices that have no place in public health policies. Republican legislators should be working with us to reduce unintended pregnancy and the need for abortion, rather than taking away all the tools that women need to have healthy, successful families.
Anti-choice legislators like Gregg Underheim do not care about reducing the need for abortion or preventing unintended pregnancy, as his refusal to let the public have a hearing on this bill shows. Those same Republicans blocking compassionate care for rape victims are the most vocal opponents of services that help women and children, such as raising the minimum wage and expanding maternal and child wellness programs.
The Compassionate Care for Rape Victims Act is a small, modest step towards ensuring a basic level of care for Wisconsin’s most vulnerable patients. I urge Republicans in the legislature to take a stand for women who are victims of rape and join the Democratic leaders in supporting Compassionate Care for Rape Victims. Thank you.
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