Women's rights have been having an interestingly odd week.
Rocky Mountain News: Owens vetoes contraception bill
By Lynn Bartels, Rocky Mountain News
April 6, 2005
Gov. Bill Owens on Tuesday vetoed a bill requiring hospitals to provide information about emergency contraception to rape victims. "This bill does not give patients all the information that they deserve, nor does it safeguard basic freedom of conscience," he said in his two-page veto letter.
His action thrilled the Catholic Church and lawmakers who believed the bill sanctioned abortion, but crushed Democratic and Republican supporters who said the measure was about about providing information to women. The veto also drew praise from Republican lawmakers who have been bashing Owens in recent weeks over his landmark budget compromise deal with Democrats.
The bill sponsors, Rep. Betty Boyd, D-Lakewood, and Sen. Jennifer Veiga, D-Denver, said they do not have the votes to overturn the veto. "Doggone it," Boyd said, vowing to come back next year with similar legislation.
Gov: Pharmacies must fill birth control orders quickly
By Maura Kelly Lannan
Published April 1, 2005, 2:41 PM CST
Gov. Rod Blagojevich filed an emergency rule Friday requiring pharmacies that sell contraceptives to fill prescriptions for birth control quickly, following recent incidents in which a Chicago pharmacist refused to fill orders for contraceptives because of moral opposition. "Our regulation says that if a woman goes to a pharmacy with a prescription for birth control, the pharmacy or the pharmacist is not allowed to discriminate or to choose who he sells it to or who he doesn't sell it to," Blagojevich said. "The pharmacy will be expected to accept that prescription and fill it ... No delays. No hassles. No lectures."
Fernando Grillo, head of the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, said the emergency rule clarifies an existing requirement. "This rule is in response, a very affirmative and strong response, that we will not tolerate pharmacies and drug stores in the state of Illinois not meeting their obligation to the women of this state in providing them good health care," Grillo said.
His department also filed a formal complaint against an Osco pharmacy in Chicago's South Loop where a pharmacist did not fill orders for contraceptives. The pharmacy was cited for "failing to provide appropriate pharmaceutical care to a patient," Blagojevich said. An Osco spokeswoman did not immediately return a call for comment Friday. [...]
Blagojevich's emergency rule requiring birth control prescriptions be filled without delay at pharmacies that sell contraceptives takes effect immediately, spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff said. It will remain in effect for 150 days, and the administration will seek to replace it by a permanent rule. Under the emergency rule, if the contraceptive is not in stock, the pharmacy must order it or transfer the prescription to another local pharmacy of the patient's choice, Blagojevich said. If the pharmacist does not fill the prescription because of a moral objection, another pharmacist needs to be available to fill it without delay...
The hate the Colorado Republican Party seems to have for women is truly breathtaking. That they consider it more important to possibly condemn women who have been raped to carry any children resulting from than to require hospitals who might otherwise be reluctant to provide information to prevent such children says something about where women stand with them. (Which is to say, they don't.)
It's going to be interesting to see what happens with the Illinois emergency rule. As these things go, the Illinois lege is relatively moderate, and frequently actually sane. That said, the pressure on all of the Republicans and a few of the Democrats to overturn that emergency rule -- or at least let it expire without passing a permanent rule change -- is going to be intense.
To be sure, this emergency rule, even if it becomes permanent, will be effective only in Chicago, Peoria, Springfield, Rockford and other places large enough to have several pharmacies relatively close to each other. In the very small towns, of which this state has many, frequently there's only one pharmacy, with only one pharmacist. In those towns, when the pharmacist refuses, the women will have no other option. What happens then, I don't know.
For what it's worth, Illinois already requires emergency room personnel to tell women who have been raped about emergency contraception, and to either fill a prescription themselves or to give them a prescription and tell them where it can be filled. Rules are also pending at the FDA to require hospitals to dispense this information, which would preempt both Colorado's reluctance and Illinois' already-existing laws.
Anyone want to bet that, under the Bush administration, those rules will never ever make it out to hospitals?
Posted by iain at April 06, 2005 01:51 PM
