Mara Gordon | Good treatment is good sense

It's every woman's worst nightmare.

She's rushed to an emergency room after being raped or sexually assaulted. She's been physically hurt, she's disoriented and humiliated, too. She has to undergo countless interviews and tests before she can even go home and take a shower.

Believe it or not, it could be worse. She could be treated at one of about half of Pennsylvania hospitals that don't consistently provide emergency contraception to victims of sexual assault.

And as a result, she could be forced to make a decision that she shouldn't even have to think about: to have an abortion or to have her rapist's child.

Emergency contraception, or the "morning-after" pill, is legal, safe, and available over the counter for anyone older than 18 in Pennsylvania. You can get it at CVS or Student Health, and usually for under $20. Taken up to three days after unprotected sex, it's very effective at preventing pregnancy. It is not an abortion pill. It's a drug that benefits all women, all across the state.

So it would seem to make common sense that women who have been sexually assaulted would be offered emergency contraception as soon as they arrive at the hospital.

Not in our fine state, with its medieval approach to women's reproductive rights.

According to a study done last year by the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape, of 173 Pennsylvania hospitals surveyed, over half were wildly inconsistent with how they approached emergency contraception for rape victims.

That means that women at half of those hospitals could be facing an unwanted pregnancy in addition to their sexual assault - when that unwanted pregnancy could have been easily avoided. Some Catholic hospitals don't offer emergency contraception on religious grounds; others simply don't educate their ER employees about it.

Several lawmakers in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives are working to change that.

Daylin Leach, a representative from the Philadelphia suburbs, co-sponsored a bill called the Sexual Assault Victim Emergency Treatment Act, a wordy title for what should be obvious: offer rape victims emergency contraception, every single time.

"When you go into the business of providing emergency medical care, you can't judge people," Leach told me. "According to scientific evidence, this in no way is an abortion. . There are some people who aren't interested in the science."

The act would simply standardize what many hospitals already do, and what every hospital should. California, New York, New Jersey and several other states already have a law on the books like this one.

The House was supposed to vote on it yesterday. But like most issues relating to women's health in our state, the bill got bogged down in politics. Lawmakers tabled it until later this month.

Luckily for women at Penn, most Philadelphia hospitals are proactive about offering emergency contraception to rape victims. Jefferson Hospital - which has no religious affiliation - is the city's major rape crisis center.

While the University's hospitals see relatively few sexual-assault victims, Penn gynecologist Courtney Schreiber says that almost all of her colleagues see emergency contraception as a valuable option for women.

But Penn's hospitals still need a consistent policy about emergency contraception, something that the SAVET Act would provide. Schreiber said the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania currently does not have clear guidelines mandating that ER staff discuss emergency contraception.

"It depends on whether or not it's something that specific provider would consider," Schreiber said. "Does it occur to them, 'Oh, I should offer them this?' . Practices are variable."

Pennsylvania lawmakers need to stop playing politics and start helping women in this state. By putting off the vote on the SAVET Act, the Pennsylvania House is ignoring the health and well-being of thousands of women.

This isn't about abortion debates or religious politics. This is about good medicine, and making sure we have access to it.

Mara Gordon is a College senior from Washington, D.C. Her e-mail is

gordon@dailypennsylvanian.com. Flash Gordon appears on Thursdays.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.