Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 189, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to authorize nonreligious hospitals to provide emergency contraception to sexual assault victims.

Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women, American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii, American Friends Service Committee Gay Liberation Program, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Community Alliance on Prisons, the First Unitarian Church, Hawai'i Citizens for the Separation of State and Church, Hawaii Coalition Against Sexual Assault, Coalition of Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies, Parents and Children Together, Planned Parenthood of Hawaii, Roman Catholic Church in the State of Hawaii, the Sex Abuse Treatment Center, St. Francis Medical Center, and six individuals. Testimony in opposition was submitted by the Department of Health, American Center for Law and Justice of Hawaii, Hawaii Right to Life, Hawaii Women Lawyers, Pro-family Hawaii, and twelve individuals.

Your Committee finds that standards of emergency care, established by the American Medical Association, require that female victims of sexual assault be counseled about the risk of pregnancy and offered emergency contraception. One statewide study found inconsistent treatment protocols of sex assault patients in Hawaii's emergency rooms and a lack of written policies.

According to a 1997 Kaiser Family Foundation report, most women of reproductive age do not know enough about emergency contraception to ask for it--only eleven per cent have heard of it, are aware of its availability, and know that treatment must be initiated within seventy-two hours after sexual intercourse.

Your Committee noted that most of the testimony in support and some of the testimony in opposition requested that religious hospitals be required to provide emergency contraceptives. Your Committee also noted that in some parts of Hawaii, such as the Leeward coast of Oahu, the only hospital available is a Catholic hospital. Thus, by permitting a religious hospital exemption, many sex assault victims will not have readily accessible emergency contraceptives. Your Committee finds that there is a compelling state interest to protect these women in such a difficult time.

Your Committee has amended this measure by replacing its contents with SB2223, S.D.1. Essentially, this measure:

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 189, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 189, H.D. 2, S.D. 2.