NARAL SURVEY SHOWS FEW HOSPITAL EMERGENCY ROOMS OFFER OR ADMINISTER EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTION
Gongwer News Service Volume #74, Report #137, Article #05 --Wednesday, July 13, 2005 Ohio hospital emergency rooms are typically not offering women emergency contraception even following a sexual assault, thereby denying timely access to a legal form of birth control, according to a statewide survey of Ohio's 151 emergency rooms conducted by NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio Foundation. The results of the study, conducted through a telephone survey conducted between June 2003 and August 2004, found that only two of 151 emergency rooms stated they administered emergency contraception - either Plan B or Preven, commonly referred to as the 'morning after' pill - in the emergency room, regardless of why it was requested. The survey further discovered that 31% of hospitals said they routinely distributed the medication to rape victims. Another 24% responded they never provided emergency contraception, even to rape victims. Jamie Miracle, NARAL's outreach and field director who led the survey, said one hospital referred the survey call to a crisis pregnancy center where the respondent compared EC to the abortion pill Mifepristone (RU-486), gave false information about the drug and became hostile. Kellie Copeland, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio, said the purpose of the survey was to highlight obstacles women face every day with the prospects of an unwanted pregnancy. She said women must be able to turn to their local hospital emergency rooms and not be turned away empty handed when facing unintended pregnancy. "Women have the right to protect themselves from unintended pregnancies and should have access to all forms of birth control, especially emergency contraception," she said. Both NARAL representatives declined to identify any hospital emergency rooms specifically by name, saying the first phase of the study was for informational purposes and they hoped the work will result in hospitals changing policies or doing a better job of implementing their policy so that, in the future, protocols will be followed to provide EC to all women needing it. Denise Mackura, executive director of the Ohio Right to Life Society, said the organization is supportive of women getting the care they need, but is opposed to doctors and hospitals providing such a strong chemicals outside the scope of the family physician. She said Right to Life's policy is to oppose administering the drug as it can be an abortive agent. Tiffany Himmelreich, manager of media and public relations for the Ohio Hospital Association, generally was unable to comment of the survey results. She said the OHA does not dictate policy with those matters left to individual hospitals. Rep. Dan Stewart (D-Columbus), appearing at the Statehouse press conference for the unveiling of the survey, expressed continued support for greater access to emergency contraception. He said failure to change policy after informing hospitals of the lack of access to the drug in their emergency rooms, he would look at a legislative solution as have other states to improve access. He called the results of the survey shocking noting that men can actually get Viagra online while women are denied access to emergency contraception even following an assault. The survey's executive summary states that the administration of emergency contraception is not an abortion procedure and, in fact, medical reports show that EC is responsible for a 43% reduction in the number of abortions between 1994 and 2000. This article was posted with permission from Gongwer News Service.
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