After three hours of debate in the Connecticut House of Representatives, the Compassionate Care for Victims of Sexual Assault Act passed the House in a decisive vote of 113 in favor and 36 opposed. I'll link to the official vote tally once it is available. Here's the full roll call vote.
The vast majority of speakers who spoke in favor of the bill cited the importance of ensuring a consistent standard of care at all Connecticut hospitals, so that any rape victim who seeks medical treatment in the immediate aftermath of rape would be offered medically accurate information on emergency contraception and, if the patient wished, would be given the full dosage of the medication at the hospital.
On a voice vote, the House resoundingly approved an amendment that attempted to address the concerns of the Catholic archdiocese in Connecticut. The amendment allows hospitals to administer a pregnancy test and to contract with an independent "third party" to administer Plan B if they have objections to their own personnel doing so.
Minority Leader Larry Cafero (R-Norwalk) then introduced an amendment that would have allowed Catholic hospitals to continue their current protocol of administering a urine ovulation test and denying EC to anyone with a positive ovulation test. The hospitals would then be required to explain to the patient why she was denied EC. The Cafero amendment provided that hospitals could contract with an independent provider to administer EC at this point, but did not specify that this would be done on site. The amendment also included licensed rape crisis counselors in the list of who could be considered qualified to administer the medication.
Opponents of the Cafero amendment made the point that the current Catholic protocol of administering a urine ovulation test was not medically appropriate, given that Plan B can still work to both prevent release of the ovum or prevent sperm from reaching an ovum (a truly contraceptive effect) even if a woman had a positive urine test for ovulation hormones. Opponents also pointed out that rape crisis counselors are victim advocates, not medical practitioners. Opponents further raised concerns that the requirement that hospitals explain their reasons for denying EC in the case of a positive ovulation test would inappropriately introduce religious discussions into medical treatment.
The Cafero amendment failed, with 47 members in favor and 101 members opposed.
After more discussion and debate, featuring Rep. Adinolfi claiming falsely that Plan B can cause an "abortion" and Rep. Heinrich clarifying the medically accurate information about how Plan B actually works (as well as some basics on female reproductive function), debate ended.
The bill passed on a vote of 113 in favor to 36 opposed. Last week, the bill passed the Senate on a vote of 32-3, and it will now go to Governor Rell for signature.
Check out the liveblogging thread for heroes and zeroes from today's debate. |
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