Bill Text: HI SB526 | 2013 | Regular Session | Amended

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Bill Title: Hospital Emergency Compassionate Care; Emergency Contraception

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 8-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2013-02-05 - Report adopted; Passed Second Reading, as amended (SD 1) and referred to JDL. [SB526 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2013-SB526-Amended.html

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STAND. COM. REP. NO. 52

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 526

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 526 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HOSPITAL EMERGENCY COMPASSIONATE CARE FOR SEXUAL ASSAULT VICTIMS,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to ensure that victims of sexual assault are provided information about and access to emergency contraception when receiving emergency medical care at Hawaii's hospitals for sexual assaults.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health, Department of Human Services, Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women, Department of the Prosecuting Attorney for the City and County of Honolulu, Sex Abuse Treatment Center, American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender Caucus of the Democratic Party of Hawaii, League of Women Voters, Planned Parenthood of Hawaii, Hawaii Women Lawyers, Hawaii Medical Association, Hawaii Rehabilitation Counseling Association, and seven individuals.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Hawaii Catholic Conference.

 

     Your Committee finds that the physical and emotional trauma suffered by victims is compounded by the possibility of an unwanted pregnancy as a result of the rape.  The average rate of pregnancy resulting from rape is between five and eight percent with an estimated thirty-two thousand rape-related pregnancies occurring each year in the United States.

 

     Your Committee further finds that emergency contraception is not an abortion pill, nor does it cause any abortive process to take place; rather, it is a safe and effective means of preventing pregnancy after a sexual assault.  The provision of emergency contraception to victims of sexual assault is the most widely recognized and accepted standard of care for sexual assault patients.  Accordingly, your Committee finds that victims of sexual assault should be provided information about and access to emergency contraception when receiving emergency medical care at Hawaii's hospitals for sexual assaults.

 

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Inserting an effective date of January 1, 2030, to encourage further discussion; and

 

     (2)  Making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 526, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 526, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Labor.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health,

 

		____________________________ JOSH GREEN, Chair