 "Photo: Joe Buglewicz")
Another battle in the war over reproductive rights will be waged in the Texas Legislature this session. State Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, filed House Bills 676 and 677 to address the needs of sexual assault victims. The former bill would require all hospitals to provide victims with information about emergency contraception and a prescription to such drugs if requested, and the latter would provide a standard of care for sexual assault victims in emergency rooms.
"[HB 676] will give victims of rape an opportunity to get treatment, counseling and a chance to prevent pregnancy," Thompson said in a press conference Monday at the Capitol.
A study by the Texas Assoc-iation Against Sexual Assault found that 60 percent of surveyed emergency rooms in Texas do not provide emergency contraception to rape victims.
Thompson is concerned that private hospitals will withhold important medical information from patients in need of emergency contraception. Brackenridge Hospital, which is owned by the city, is managed by a Catholic organization and is of particular concern to Thompson, who said the hospital refuses to provide such information for sexual assault victims.
Administrators for the SETON Healthcare Network, which runs Brackenridge, refused to answer any questions concerning their policy on informing patients about emergency contraception. However, all sexual assault victims treated at Brackenridge, once stabilized, are referred to St. David's Medical Center for a forensic examination, according to a written statement from SETON. St. David's allows independent medical examiners to operate within the hospital and give information on emergency contraception to rape victims.
Some victims, however, do not want forensic exams, said Mary Levy, program coordinator for the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners program at St. David's. Those patients will not receive any information about emergency contraception because they will not receive treatment outside of Brackenridge.
"These women should be able to get, at the very least, the minimum standard of care of emergency contraception," Levy said.
The drug that functions as an emergency contraceptive is called Plan B. It is essentially a high dose of the same hormones found in traditional birth control pills. After conception occurs, there is no potential for the drug to inflict any harm on the mother or the fetus, according to Thompson's office.
Opponents of the bill claim that emergency contraception is often not actually contraceptive in its function.
"If you have something that has an effect after fertilization takes place - in other words, acts like an abortifacient - we would have concerns about that," said Joe Pojman, executive director of the Texas Alliance for Life. An abortifacient is a drug that induces an abortion.
Thompson contends that pregnancy begins when a fertilized egg is implanted into the mother's uterine lining, and since emergency contraceptives do not work after implantation, they cannot qualify as abortifacients.
Safety concerns for the drug are minimal, and a recent Journal for the American Medical Association study determined that access to emergency contraceptives does not cause any increase in sexual behavior that can lead to higher rates of unwanted pregnancy or sexually transmitted infections, despite some opponents' claims.
The FDA is in the process of ruling on a request to make Plan B available without a prescription to women over the age of 16. The agency ruled against allowing over-the-counter access to the drug last year, citing concerns about teens under 16 obtaining it without being properly informed by a doctor.
As for the other bill, Thompson says, "HB 677 is designed to give victims the opportunity to be treated in a private room." Rape can be a traumatic experience, and Thompson says that private rooms would make forensic work easier and less humiliating for victims.
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