Gov. Bill Owens faces a test of his Catholic faith.
Lawmakers sent the governor a bill Tuesday that would require Catholic hospitals to tell rape victims about emergency contraception.
Under House Bill 1042, all health care providers in the state must offer information and referrals on how to get pills that let rape victims avoid pregnancy.
The issue has prompted emotional outcries in the Capitol – with rape victims choking up during testimony and lawyers yelling at one another in the hallways.
Owens has not yet taken a position on the bill.
It marks a major change in the political direction of the state legislature, which rejected similar bills for the past two years under Republican leadership. Democrats took control this year.
“We are trying to prevent for women who are already dealing with the trauma of a rape the additional trauma of having to deal with pregnancy when it can be prevented,’ said Rep. Betty Boyd, D-Lakewood, the bill’s sponsor.
On Tuesday, supporters delivered 5,000 letters to the governor’s office calling on him to let the bill become law. And they announced an automated phone-call campaign that targets Republicans.
Earlier, one rape victim who got pregnant and had the child tugged at lawmakers’ hearts with an audio tape of her daughter singing “Jesus Loves Me.’
Advocates for both sides of the bill slipped out of a conference room and into a yelling match in the hallway during a committee hearing. They were so loud that Capitol attendants rushed over to warn them to quiet down.
And now proponents are rolling out a major effort to persuade Owens to sign the bill – or at least not veto it. Once the bill reaches his desk, Owens has 10 days to sign the bill, veto it or simply let it become law without his signature.
The Republican Majority for Choice of Washington, D.C., is paying to call tens of thousands of Republicans in the state. Christie Todd Whitman, former New Jersey governor and Bush administration official, recorded the message that urges Republicans to contact Owens.
The message prompts recipients to push a button to immediately dial Owens’ office.
As of Tuesday, the governor’s office had received about 100 e-mails and 30 phone calls – mostly in support of the bill.
Catholic leaders are particularly incensed about the bill, which they say mandates Catholic hospitals to provide a service that runs counter to the tenets of their faith.
During Tuesday’s debate in the House, Boyd said the bill covers institutions, not individuals. Individual medical workers could opt to have someone else tell a patient about emergency contraception, she said.
And no hospital will be forced to provide the pills, she said. Rather, hospitals would be required to refer patients to another source for the pills.
Some Catholics believe that the “emergency contraception’ pills do more than prevent a woman from getting pregnant. They say that the pills could flush a fertilized egg out of the rape victim’s womb.
Executives at Exempla St. Joseph Hospital in Denver and St. Mary’s Hospital in Grand Junction said they give pregnancy tests to rape victims to determine whether they can offer emergency contraception.
Without the pregnancy test, hospital officials say they cannot tell whether the pills work to prevent or to end a pregnancy.
“They misrepresent it in the very name of the bill,’ said Martin Nussbaum, a Colorado Springs lawyer representing the Colorado Catholic Conference. “If it was about emergency contraception, there would be no controversy.’
In some cases, Nussbaum considers the pills equivalent to an abortion.
Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput has written editorials opposed to the bill. Chaput and other Catholic leaders met with the governor earlier this month to discuss public-policy issues.
Sergio Gutierrez, spokesman for the diocese, said Chaput will ask Owens to veto the bill.
Other Catholic groups are mobilizing to ask Owens to veto the bill. The Colorado Catholic Conference plans to alert 700 subscribers to its e-mail list and ask them to contact Owens.
Mercy Wagner, board member of Educating on the Nature and Dignity of Women, said her grassroots Catholic group will ask its 250 participants and others to contact the governor.
Other religious groups are aligning with the Catholic Church. Earlier this month, Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family contacted its members about the bill, urging them to oppose the bill and contact lawmakers.
But during debate on the floor of the House Tuesday, Rep. Jack Pommer, D-Boulder, said that the bill was about medicine, not religion.
“We don’t take rape victims to a church,’ he said. “We take them to a hospital (which has) … a commitment to provide the best and most complete treatment to anyone who shows up.’
Staff writer Jim Hughes contributed to this report.
Staff writer Mark P. Couch can be reached at 303-820-1794 or mcouch@denverpost.com.
