Connecticut Catholic Bishops agree to comply with law requiring hospitals to dispense EC to rape survivors

Connecticut's Roman Catholic bishops on Thursday said that the state's four Catholic hospitals will comply with a law (SB 1343) that takes effect Monday and requires all hospitals in the state to dispense emergency contraception to rape survivors, the Hartford Courant reports (Keating, Hartford Courant, 9/28).

The law, which was signed by Gov. M. Jodi Rell (R) in May, requires that rape survivors be given a pregnancy test before receiving EC, which can prevent pregnancy if taken within 72 hours of sexual intercourse, and does not require hospitals to provide the drug to women who test positive for pregnancy. In addition, hospitals can contract with a third-party provider to provide EC rather than require employees to dispense the drug.

Archbishop Henry Mansell last year instructed Catholic hospitals in the state not to prescribe Barr Laboratories' EC Plan B if rape survivors are ovulating or if an egg has been fertilized (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 5/18). The bishops and officials from the state's Catholic hospitals in a joint statement said that "since the teaching authority of the church has not definitively resolved this matter and since there is serious doubt about how Plan B pills work," the hospital staff will be allowed to provide EC to rape survivors without administering an ovulation test (Haigh, AP/Boston Globe, 9/28).

The bishop's statement said the law's requirement that a pregnancy test, rather than an ovulation test, be administered before EC is dispensed is sufficient because of the "current impossibility of knowing from the ovulation test whether a new life is present." In addition, the bishops said that EC will be administered by employees of the Catholic hospitals rather than by outside contractors. Barry Feldman, an attorney for the Connecticut Catholic Conference, said the conference has not "heard objections" to the law from emergency department staff (Hartford Courant, 9/28).

According to the AP/Globe, before the law was passed, non-Catholic hospitals had inconsistent policies on EC. According to the Connecticut Sexual Assault Crisis Services, 40% of rape survivors were not offered or did not receive the full dose of EC in the first six months of 2006 (AP/Boston Globe, 9/28).

Comments
Although the Catholic hospitals have agreed to follow the law, church officials still are opposed to it, the Courant reports. "We continue to believe this law should be changed," the bishops said, adding that they believe the law "is seriously flawed, but not sufficiently to bar compliance with it at the present time." They added, "If it becomes clear that Plan B pills would lead to an early chemical abortion in some instances, this matter would have to be reopened" (Hartford Courant, 9/28).

Laura Cordes, policy and advocacy director for the assault crisis service at CSACS, said the Catholic Church's announcement is "welcome news for women in Connecticut who survive rape and turn to hospitals for treatment and evidence collection" (AP/Boston Globe, 9/28).