Rep. Rebekah Warren (D - Ann Arbor) and Rep. Marie Donigan (D - Royal Oak) have bills pending before the MI House Judiciary Committee that would ensure women who have been sexually assaulted get the comprehensive reproductive health care they need following an assault.
House Bill 6048 would mandate that hospitals provide this information to women and offer EC to rape survivors. House Bill 6050 would require that the Department of Community Health undertake an educational campaign regarding EC.
The American Journal of Preventive Medicine estimates that up to 22,000 pregnancies resulting from sexual assault each year could be prevented if hospital emergency rooms and other emergency care settings provided EC information and EC as an option. EC is 75% effective in preventing pregnancy if started within 120 hours of unprotected intercourse.
Bills 6048 and 6050 would go a long way to resolving what is a serious public health issue. In our report Preventing Pregnancy after Rape: Emergency Care Facilities Put Women at Risk, the ACLU found that fewer than 40% of emergency care facilities in eight out of eleven states provide EC to women seeking treatment after sexual assault.
The report’s findings are particularly important in light of the Department of Justice’s failure to include any mention of EC in its first-ever national protocol for the treatment of sexual assault survivors. The failure of hospitals around the country to provide EC to sexual assault survivors shows the importance of a national protocol that ensures all sexual assault survivors receive comprehensive reproductive health care, including EC.
Tell the House Judiciary Committee and your representative to support HB 6048 and 6050.
