The Colorado Senate on Monday endorsed Sen. Betty Boyd’s years-long effort to ensure rape victims are told about emergency contraception, giving initial approval to a bill that would require hospitals to provide information about the so-called morning after pills.
The bill would exempt health-care workers with religious or moral conflicts from having to talk about the issue, but it would require that hospitals – even Catholic institutions – find someone on staff to relay the information.
Boyd, D-Lakewood, who for years has been trying to make emergency contraception available to rape victims, hopes this is the year she will finally get the proposal through. Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter is expected to support it.
Lawmakers passed her bills in 2005 and 2006 but Republican Gov. Bill Owens vetoed both.
Since then, the federal Food and Drug Administration has legalized over-the-counter sales of emergency contraception. But Boyd wants to make sure all victims are told about its availability when they get rape exams.
Some opponents of emergency contraception say the pills are essentially the same as an abortion because they can flush a fertilized egg out of a woman’s body.
“I believe in life, and I believe that life begins at conception,” said Sen. Greg Brophy, R-Wray.
Boyd argued that emergency contraception – which is a high dose of birth-control formulas – “usually works by preventing the ovulation from even occurring.”
Sen. Shawn Mitchell, R-Broomfield, argued that the bill legislates doctor-patient relationships.
“I think it is fairly unprecedented for the legislature to meddle in the specific point of medical advice that a doctor has to give,” he said.
The full Senate must take one more vote on the bill before sending it to the House.
Staff writer Jeri Clausing can be reached at 303-954-1555 or jclausing@denverpost.com.
