It concerns the Plan B contraceptive pill being denied to rape victims in hospitals. I quote one Florida legislator who won't help pass a bill to require this be offered. If we keep tolerating this stuff, with no one speaking out...there won't be change.
Here is an example of the type of religious extremism we have to fight.A Florida lawmaker is refusing to vote for a bill to require hospitals to give contraception to rape victims. Why? He's a Christian.
Rep. Dennis Baxley, a leading conservative voice, said his belief that life begins at conception would preclude his support.
State lawmakers will consider a bill requiring doctors and nurses to offer the so-called ''morning-after pill'' to rape victims.Consider a bill? I am talking to some folks who think it won't pass, that too many will give in to the right wing Christians here just as Charlie Crist did on stem-cell research. There should have already been a bill to protect women who are victims of rape....it should not even be something they should have to "consider."
The well-publicized case of a Tampa rape victim who was denied emergency birth control exposes a little-known fault line in Florida's treatment of sexual assault: Whether a victim gets medication to prevent pregnancy depends on where she ends up after the attack.
Rape victims treated at hospitals instead of specialized crisis centers frequently are not offered emergency contraception, advocates say, even though it has been available over the counter at major drugstores since last year. In the state-recommended forensic exam after a sexual assault, offering the medication is optional.
But outrage over the Tampa case could give momentum to a bill filed by two South Florida lawmakers demanding that doctors and nurses make emergency birth control available to rape victims.
I would agree with what Howard Dean said in 2004, even though I don't hear him saying it now very much. In fact, no one is saying it. We are too busy giving in and being fearful instead of pointing out this is imposing their religion on all women. It is wrong.
From You Have the Power in 2004 by Howard Dean:
..."it seems to me that the right wing of the Republican Party preaches virtue on the one hand and intolerance on the other"
Maybe if we keep saying this is wrong, this is not their right to do this...some politician might agree with us again. Because of their religious beliefs, many are being intolerant toward women who are victims of rape. It is wrong.
