2008 Woodie Awards
Contraceptive controversy
Colo. Legislature debating rights
Kristin Kunz
Issue date: 2/8/05 Section: News
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The Colorado Legislature is considering a bill that would define the rights that a rape victim has to information about preventing a resulting pregnancy.
The House Committee on Health and Human Services approved House bill 1042 in late January. The bill moves next to the full House of Representatives for debate and, if approved, will go to Senate committees and eventually to the entire Senate.
If signed into law by Gov. Bill Owens, the legislation would require hospital emergency rooms to inform victims that emergency contraception, also known as the morning-after pill or Plan B, can prevent an unwanted pregnancy. The hospital would also be required to offer emergency contraception or refer the patient to a pharmacy that can provide it.
Similar bills have failed in the past two sessions of the State Legislature. Observers believe the bill has a greater chance of passing this year because for the first time in 42 years, Democrats control both chambers of the Colorado Legislature.
In addition to the implications that the bill would have for hospitals and rape victims, it presents a moral conflict for many.
Colorado law defines a pregnancy as beginning with implantation of a fertilized egg in a woman's uterine wall. This definition is the source of controversy for those opposed to the bill.
"Just because there are members of the medical [and legal] community that fail to realize that life begins at conception does not mean that those members are correct," said University of Denver sophomore Tara Stone, a member of DU's Catholic group FOCUS. "No matter how traumatic an event is, it can never justify the destruction of a human life."
Others, however, say that opposition to the bill is based on a misconception of the effects of the morning-after pill.
"It comes down to a misunderstanding of what the drug is and what it does," said DU senior Heather Yocum, president of the Undergraduate Women's Council. "EC just creates a hostile environment for an egg. It won't actually cause an abortion or a baby to die if the woman is already pregnant."
The House Committee on Health and Human Services approved House bill 1042 in late January. The bill moves next to the full House of Representatives for debate and, if approved, will go to Senate committees and eventually to the entire Senate.
If signed into law by Gov. Bill Owens, the legislation would require hospital emergency rooms to inform victims that emergency contraception, also known as the morning-after pill or Plan B, can prevent an unwanted pregnancy. The hospital would also be required to offer emergency contraception or refer the patient to a pharmacy that can provide it.
Similar bills have failed in the past two sessions of the State Legislature. Observers believe the bill has a greater chance of passing this year because for the first time in 42 years, Democrats control both chambers of the Colorado Legislature.
In addition to the implications that the bill would have for hospitals and rape victims, it presents a moral conflict for many.
Colorado law defines a pregnancy as beginning with implantation of a fertilized egg in a woman's uterine wall. This definition is the source of controversy for those opposed to the bill.
"Just because there are members of the medical [and legal] community that fail to realize that life begins at conception does not mean that those members are correct," said University of Denver sophomore Tara Stone, a member of DU's Catholic group FOCUS. "No matter how traumatic an event is, it can never justify the destruction of a human life."
Others, however, say that opposition to the bill is based on a misconception of the effects of the morning-after pill.
"It comes down to a misunderstanding of what the drug is and what it does," said DU senior Heather Yocum, president of the Undergraduate Women's Council. "EC just creates a hostile environment for an egg. It won't actually cause an abortion or a baby to die if the woman is already pregnant."