Requires hospitals to provide information on emergency contraception to sexual assault victims and provide emergency contraception when requested; requires training on sexual assault and emergency contraceptives to those who treat survivors; provides for enforcement and penalties.

A BILL FOR AN ACT

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that one woman out of every five women in the United States has reported being either raped or physically or sexually assaulted in her lifetime, and According to Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) statistics, there were over ninety-five thousand forcible rapes of females in 2002 in the United States, which represented a 4.7 per cent increase from the previous year. Much more disturbing is the information provided by the United States Department of Justice National Crime Victimization Surveys which indicate that over half of all rapes are not reported to the police.

According to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports, there were three hundred and four forcible rapes reported in Hawaii in 2002. Adding to the trauma is that after a woman is sexually assaulted, she may face the reality of an unwanted pregnancy by the rapist. Each year, over thirty-two thousand women are forcibly placed in this situation and become pregnant as a result of a sexual assault, with approximately fifty per cent of these pregnancies ending in abortion.

Emergency contraceptives have been approved for use by the United States Food and Drug Administration to prevent pregnancy after unprotected sexual intercourse.

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 of those studied had heard of it, are aware of its availability, or know that treatment must be initiated within seventy-two hours after sexual intercourse.

The purpose of this Act is to:

SECTION 2. Chapter 321, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new part to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"Part . EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTIVES FOR SEXUAL ASSAULT SURVIVORS

§321- Definitions. As used in this part, unless the context otherwise requires:

"Department" means the department of health.

"Emergency care" means medical examinations, procedures, and services provided by a hospital to a sexual assault survivor.

"Emergency contraception" means any drug or device approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration that prevents pregnancy after sexual intercourse.

"Sexual assault" means any act of sexual penetration prohibited in chapter 707.

"Sexual assault survivor" means a female who alleges or is alleged to have been sexually assaulted and who presents herself as a patient at a hospital for treatment related to the assault.

§321- Emergency care for sexual assault survivors. All hospitals that provide emergency care to sexual assault survivors shall:

The cost of the emergency contraception dispensed shall be paid by the department as provided in section 321-1.3.

§321- Training. Hospitals that provide emergency care to sexual assault survivors shall ensure that each person who provides care to sexual assault survivors is provided with medically and factually accurate information about emergency contraception and sexual assault treatment.

§321- Enforcement. (a) Complaints of failure to provide services required by this part may be filed with the department. In addition to any remedies at common law, the department shall have the power to accept, investigate, prosecute, and hear complaints regarding any hospital that is not providing the services required by this part.

(b) The department shall periodically determine hospital compliance with this part. Hospitals determined not to be in compliance shall be provided with written notice of the department’s determination of noncompliance and an opportunity for corrective action. If the department determines that noncompliance continues after the offending hospital receives written notice of the department’s determination of noncompliance and an opportunity for correction, the department shall:

(c) In any proceeding under this section, the hospital subject to the proceeding shall be given notice and the opportunity for a hearing in conformity with chapter 91.

(d) The director of health may adopt rules pursuant to chapter 91 necessary to carry out the purposes of this part."

SECTION 3. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2006.