Guidelines for treating rape victims omit emergency contraception

[diamond14]

http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2004/12/31/build/nation/80-rape-victims.inc

December 31, 2004

Guidelines for treating rape victims omit emergency contraception
Knight Ridder News

-snips-

PHILADELPHIA - The U.S. Department of Justice has issued its first-ever medical guidelines for treating sexual assault victims - without any mention of emergency contraception, the standard precaution against pregnancy after rape. The omission of the so-called morning-after pill has frustrated and angered victims' advocates and medical professionals who have long worked to improve victims' care.

Lynn Schollet, a lawyer with the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault, said without emergency contraception, the trauma of rape could be compounded by an unplanned pregnancy. "It is very unfortunate to set forth a model national standard that is not giving women the best care available,'' Schollet said.

The Pennsylvania chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union is now collecting signatures on a petition urging the Justice Department to fix the "glaring omission in an otherwise thorough document.'' In the half-page on pregnancy "risk evaluation and care,'' the protocol says to take victims' pregnancy fears "seriously,'' give a pregnancy test, and "discuss treatment options, including reproductive health services.''

Advocates point out that emergency contraception, which is nothing more than high-dose birth control pills, reduces the chance of pregnancy 75 to 90 percent - but only if taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex. "This narrow window of effectiveness makes timely access to emergency contraception critical,'' declares the petition.

The risk of pregnancy after rape is small - less than 5 percent - but the vulnerable group is large. Of 333,000 sexual assaults and rapes reported in 1998, about 25,000 resulted in pregnancies - of which 22,000 could have been prevented, estimated Princeton University population researcher James Trussell.

[barb162]

1. can you imagine getting pregnant by a rapist?

[sinkingfeeling]

2. The 'Nazis' war on women continues! I hate these fools!!

[barb162]

3. the other thing I don't notice is treatment for venereal disease and

AIDS

[diamond14]

4. released on new years eve to lessen impact...don't let this disappear

women should be screaming outside the White House and Congress about this 'TALIBAN' control of women's rights, especially after being assaulted by rape.....

bush* and his cabal are CRIMINALS.....

[AFSCME girl]

5. KICK!!!!!!!

Remember ladies, as Bushco is chipping away at our rights, Hell hath no fury......

[joeybee12]

6. Those phuckers! Why was this only picked up by a small paper in MT?

I haven't seen this anywhere else.

[Moderator]

7. duplicate

locking.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1112278