STAND. COM. REP. NO.1120
Honolulu, Hawaii
, 2003
RE: H.B. No. 189
H.D. 2
S.D. 1
Honorable Robert Bunda
President of the Senate
Twenty-Second State Legislature
Regular Session of 2003
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committee on Health, to which was referred H.B. No. 189, H.D. 2, entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTIVES FOR SEX ASSAULT SURVIVORS IN EMERGENCY ROOMS,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The purpose of this measure is to require hospitals that provide emergency care to provide emergency contraception to sexual assault survivors.
Testimony supporting this measure was received from the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women, Planned Parenthood of Hawaii, Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition of Hawaii, Sex Abuse Treatment Center, Community Alliance on Prisons, The First Unitarian Church, and American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii. Opposing testimony was received from Hawaii Right to Life, Ohana Pregnancy Referrals, Roman Catholic Church in the State of Hawaii, St. Francis Healthcare System of Hawaii, American Center for Law & Justice of Hawaii, Pro-Family Hawaii, and eighteen individuals. Comments were received from the Department of the Attorney General.
Your Committee finds that more than 300,000 women are sexually assaulted in the United States each year. Of these, an estimated 32,000 become pregnant as a result of the assault.
Your Committee further finds that currently, emergency contraceptives are part of the treatment protocol for all sex assault victims in Hawaii. Identified sex assault survivors are taken to a hospital with medical personnel trained in this area. Your Committee further finds, however, that some victims choose not to identify themselves as having been sexually assaulted and seek treatment for assault symptoms.
Your Committee notes that use of emergency contraceptives in sexual assault cases is endorsed by the American Medical Association, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the Hawaii Medical Association. Your Committee is sensitive, however, to other religious, social, and moral views on contraception. Therefore, after balancing the needs of victims with the religious beliefs of care providers, your Committee amended the measure by replacing its contents with the provisions of the Senate version, Senate Bill No. 658, S.D. 1, which:
(1) Requires nonreligious hospitals to offer and provide emergency contraceptives to sexual assault survivors;
(2) Adds a definition for "religious hospital"; and
(3) Adds a new section that exempts religious hospitals from the requirement of offering and providing emergency contraceptives while retaining the requirement that they provide unbiased information on the risks of pregnancy.
In addition, your Committee further amended this measure by:
(1) Adding to the new part created by this measure a definition of "department" to mean the Department of Health; and
(2) Providing that a hospital that commits two violations of the emergency care requirements for sexual assault survivors as provided in this measure shall be subject to suspension or revocation of its "license", rather than its "application for a certificate of authority", which your Committee finds to be an ambiguous term.
As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 189, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 189, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health,
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____________________________ ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair |
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