STAND. COM. REP. NO. 210

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2005

RE: H.B. No. 1240

H.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Health, to which was referred H.B. No. 1240 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTIVES FOR SEXUAL ASSAULT SURVIVORS IN EMERGENCY ROOMS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to require all hospitals that provide emergency care to sexual assault survivors to provide them with information on emergency contraceptives, to enable these women to make informed choices regarding whether or not to obtain emergency contraception.

In addition, the bill:

(1) Requires these hospitals to provide emergency contraception training to emergency care providers; and

(2) Allows the filing of complaints and the imposition of fines for the failure to provide medically and factually accurate emergency contraception information to survivors.

Your Committee finds that, approximately every six minutes, a woman is sexually assaulted and, as a result, may face the additional trauma of an unwanted pregnancy due to the rape. Emergency contraceptives have been approved for use by the United States Food and Drug Administration to prevent pregnancy after unprotected sexual intercourse.

In addition, your Committee finds that the American Medical Association has established standards of emergency care that require female victims of sexual assault to be counseled about the risk of pregnancy and offered emergency contraception. However, in Hawaii, a Kaiser Family Foundation report found inconsistent protocols for treatment of sexual assault patients in Hawaii's emergency rooms, a lack of written policies, and a lack of patient knowledge about the availability of emergency contraception. With proper training, hospitals that provide emergency care to sexual assault survivors can provide information on emergency contraception to help survivors make informed decisions about their health care.

With the agreement of the interested parties, your Committee has amended this bill by making religiously affiliated hospitals exempt from the requirement to provide emergency care to sexual assault survivors. However, these hospitals are required to provide at their own expenses, medically appropriate transportation of these survivors in a timely manner to another health care facility or provider of the survivor's choice.

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 H.B. No. 1240, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1240, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary.

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

 

____________________________

DENNIS A. ARAKAKI, Chair