In order to have a fair and functional healthcare system, we need standards of care (SOC) that all professionals providing care in the system will follow. We cannot have rape victims being hassled by puritanical providers ignoring SOC so that rape victims in a moment of weakness or confusion or exhaustion are forced to carry an unwanted rape pregnancy to term. Remember it is the patient needing and being treated by the system, not the healthcare provider, and SOC are made to help the patients get the best care recognized by the overall society and profession! Well in some even relatively conservative states, the pendulum is beginning to swing back to universal SOC being enforced so that if you find yourself going or being taken to the "wrong" place after your rape, you will still get care according to SOC everywhere else!!!
We have all read about pharmacists refusing to fill prescriptions for birth control pills and for morning after pills. Now in conservative, puritanical America, we have hospitals refusing to give or even inform rape victims of the morning after pill to stop potential pregnancies due to rape, or any other reason for that matter. Well in Pennsylvania anyway, SOC that demand every victim gets the info and services they need are becoming reality, FINALLY. Pa. sets post-rape rules for hospitals look like it will become reality thanks to some clear and fair thinking by the current folks in power.
HARRISBURG - Hospitals in Pennsylvania must provide women who have been raped or sexually assaulted with emergency contraception, according to state regulations approved yesterday.
The rules, adopted by the Independent Regulatory Review Commission, are the first statewide for how hospitals must deal with emergency contraception, long a touchy subject in Pennsylvania and other states.
But supporters of emergency contraception said yesterday that the regulations gave hospitals an easy out by allowing them to apply for an exemption due to religious or moral objections. "We certainly think more work needs to be done to make sure that every victim of rape is given the complete care that she should get as a matter of course," said Larry Frankel, legislative director for the American Civil Liberties Union in Pennsylvania. "It should not matter which hospital she goes to, because she doesn't get to choose that. There are better ways of accommodating those with religious objections."
A state law that would prohibit such exemptions is pending.
Officials from the state Department of Health, which pushed for the new rules, said hospitals that claim an exemption must inform victims of the availability of emergency contraception - a drug known as Plan B - and arrange for transportation to a facility that provides it.
The state cannot go much further because of laws governing health-care facilities and religious freedom, said Joanne Corte Grossi, deputy secretary for health promotion and disease prevention at the Health Department.
If you want to be a professional provider of care, you cannot be that and be the inventor of your own SOC at the same time. If you are the kind of puritanical zealot that just cannot follow SOC, then know that ahead of time and find a different line of work, such as the clergy maybe! It is about time that freedom in this country meant freedom for all to live according to their own ethical standards and not just those of the religious right. That being said, being a provider of healthcare does mean that some of your personal moral beliefs may have to be left home when you go to work each day because otherwise chaos and unfair treatment to patients results. Remember in healthcare, it is the patient being treated, not the provider!
Now let's see if Pennsylvania can get on the friggin pharmacists to practice according to SOC as well!