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“It was really important on a practical level and on a symbolic level,” Harrington said of the receptionist’s query. “Every other choice was made for me that evening.”
Now Harrington, 22, a UW-Madison student from Whitefish Bay, supports a plan to require all Wisconsin hospitals to stock the pill and offer it to rape victims.
Dubbed the “compassionate care” bill, SB 129 passed the Democratic-controlled Senate by a vote of 27 to 6. Among those voting yes were seven Republicans and one Democrat who had opposed a similar version in 2002.
But with abortion politics swirling around the issue, the fate of a companion bill in the Republican-controlled Assembly is unclear.
Three Assembly Republican have signed on as co-sponsors and two key anti-abortion groups are officially neutral on the legislation — a factor that led to the wide margin of support in the Senate.
“This is going to put more pressure on the Assembly leadership now that there’s at least three Republicans supporting it,” said Dean Kaufert, R-Neenah, one of the GOP co-sponsors. “It’s different from the whole abortion discussion because we’re talking about rape.”
Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch, R-West Salem, did not respond this week to requests for comment. The Assembly version does not yet have a bill number.
The bill
SB 129 would require all Wisconsin hospitals to stock emergency contraception and make it available to rape victims upon request.
The bill defines emergency contraception as a federally approved drug or medication that prevents pregnancy after sex but does not terminate a pregnancy. Hospitals would not be required to dispense the pill if a victim is determined to be pregnant, a provision that was added to make the bill acceptable to pro-life lawmakers and groups, said Senate Majority Leader Judy Robson, D-Beloit, the lead sponsor.
Ten states already require medical providers to dispense emergency contraception to rape victims, including Minnesota, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
The Wisconsin bill has the backing of groups ranging from the Wisconsin Sheriffs and Deputy Sheriffs Association to the Wisconsin Nurses Association to the Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault, according to the state Ethics Board, which tracks lobbying activity.
And abortion opponents the Wisconsin Catholic Conference and Wisconsin Right to Life are not opposing the bill.
Officials from both groups say that they’re officially neutral, but that they believe it doesn’t promote abortions.
“There has to be a basis for your opposition, and our basis would have been if the bill violated the conscience concerns of hospitals in Wisconsin, but the hospitals aren’t objecting to the bill, including the Catholic hospitals, which believe with the way the bill is written they can operate,” said Susan Armacost, legislative director for the right-to-life group.
John Huebscher, executive director of the Catholic Conference, said he doesn’t know of any of the state’s roughly 35 Catholic hospitals that don’t already stock the pill.
In a letter to constituents last week, Sen. Shelia Harsdorf, R-River Falls, cited the position of those two pro-life groups and the exemption language related to an existing pregnancy as reasons for her support of the bill. Harsdorf had opposed a similar bill in 2002, which didn’t include the exemption.
Sen. Carol Roessler, R-Oshkosh, also opposed the bill in 2002 but supported it this year. She said three hospitals in her district already provide emergency contraception, including two Catholic hospitals.
“My view, after all things considered, is this victim needed a full complement of treatment,” Roessler said.
But the bill is still opposed by Pro-Life Wisconsin, which says an emergency contraception pill can prevent a fertilized egg from being implanted in a woman’s uterus, which the group calls “pre-implantation chemical abortion.”
“A child conceived in rape is a human being and not to be sacrificed for the crimes of the father,” said Matt Sande, a lobbyist for the group. “The overarching idea here is a child’s personhood is not dependent on the circumstances of his or her conception.”
Roessler said scientific studies show that emergency contraception doesn’t cause abortion.
Bi-partisan support
In addition to Kaufert, GOP Reps. Terry Musser of Black River Falls and Jeffrey Wood of Chippewa Falls have signed on as co-sponsors of the Assembly version. All three said they consider themselves pro-life.
But Wood said rape victims should be able to prevent pregnancy and that the bill doesn’t require hospitals to dispense medication that will end a pregnancy. Musser said the neutrality of pro-life groups helped influence his opinion.
“When Right to Life and the Catholic Conference have basically taken no position, that tells me, and a lot of people, that this is not an abortion issue — no matter how you want to spin it,” Musser said.
Musser, the lead Republican sponsor, said Huebsch has promised to speak with him about the bill.
Republicans hold a 52-47 majority in the Assembly, and the votes of Musser, Kaufert and Wood could be enough for passage if the bill comes to the floor for a vote.
A signal on the bill’s fate in the Assembly will be the committee to which it gets assigned, Musser said. Some committee chairpersons would likely not give the bill a hearing, while others will, he said.
Rep. J.A. Hines, R-Oxford, said he would give the bill a hearing if it gets sent to his Public Health Committee, and that he’s told Huebsch that. Hines said he has not made his mind up on the bill but would support it if he can be convinced that it wouldn’t force hospitals to dispense medication that causes abortion.
Other possible committee assignments include Health and Health Care Reform, chaired by Rep. Leah Vukmir, R-Wauwatosa, and the Judiciary and Ethics Committee, chaired by Rep. Mark Gundrum, R-New Berlin.
Gundrum, who has received awards from both the state pro-life group and the state sexual assault coalition, was out of town last week and couldn’t be reached for comment. Vukmir couldn’t be reached for comment.
Sande said he is confident the Assembly will kill the bill, but he declined to elaborate.
But Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, the lead sponsor of the Assembly bill, said Assembly Democrats are committed to getting a vote on the bill. If the Assembly doesn’t hold a hearing, Democrats would consider using a procedural motion to force a vote on the bill on the floor, Pocan said.
Mark Pitsch is a reporter for the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison.
