(no subject)

[eirias]

Short story: Our state Assembly wishes to ban health care providers at UW from "prescribing, dispensing, or advertising birth control to adult female students, including emergency contraception to rape victims."

cpaline already posted this, but I have a number of non-UW friends who will also find this annoying, so I thought I'd share the love.


Stop the UW Birth Control Ban!

The UW Birth Control Ban, Assembly Bill 343, would ban health care providers at all University of Wisconsin campuses and on all UW property from prescribing, dispensing or advertising birth control to adult female students, including emergency contraception to rape victims.

UW Birth Control Ban Unconstitutional
Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager has declared that the UW Birth Control Ban is unconstitutional and discriminatory. Attorney General Lautenschlager stated that the UW Birth Control Ban, proposed by Rep. Daniel LeMahieu (R-Oostburg), would "violate several provisions of the United States and Wisconsin Constitutions."

Lautenschlager cited several violations within AB 343, including the constitutional right to privacy, the Equal Protection Clause that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, and the right to free speech. The UW Birth Control Ban is contrary to 40 years of Supreme Court case law and is not only discriminatory, but runs counter to the state's interest in promoting access to health care.

Take Action! Thank Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager
Send a letter to Attorney General Lautenschlager thanking her for supporting access to basic health care for all UW students. Click here to send your letter.

Take Action! Sign the Petition Opposing the UW Birth Control Ban
It's Outrageous! Rep. LeMahieu has stated that this bill is needed because access to birth control, including emergency contraception, encourages women to be promiscuous. Click here to sign the petition.

Comments

[trygve.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's disturbing. Surely that could be overthrown in court even if it were passed, right? I mean, isn't the government's primary say in health care through the FDA? Can they just pass a bill making a certain type of medical treatment illegal? And "advertising"?? Doesn't *anybody* else ever worry about creeping infringement of first ammendment rights? How absurd!

[thekat03.livejournal.com]

it's a state school. i suspect that they would have no chance at banning private university health service depts from providing contraception, but public schools are a bit different.

[rms10.livejournal.com]

But can public employees still have insurance which covers contraception? Can county hospitals still prescribe and dispense contraception?

This bill is ludicrous on many levels, but to only go after college-aged women is what makes it really disgusting.

[thekat03.livejournal.com]

true. but they're an easy target... easier than the high schoolers (or middle schoolers) who have to either have to go through their primary care physician (and risk their parents finding out if it's billed to insurance) or find a way to planned parenthood or something similar and probably pay out of pocket unless they can qualify for a sliding scale.

ya know... i bet there's married college-aged women who rely on university provided contraception, and they're getting screwed as much as the "promiscuous" non-married women. i kind of doubt that was an intended side effect.

[eirias.livejournal.com]

ya know... i bet there's married college-aged women who rely on university provided contraception, and they're getting screwed as much as the "promiscuous" non-married women. i kind of doubt that was an intended side effect.

Yeah, try grad students...

[feuervogel]

Well, the federal government tried to pass a ban on a medical procedure that a) doesn't exist and b) wasn't well-defined in the language of the bill. (The "partial birth abortion" ban.)

Don't get me started on the Pharmacists for Life, either. Not a good idea, because I dissolve into incoherent rage.

[trygve.livejournal.com]

Now I'm curious, but I'll be nice and not get you started. =)

[feuervogel]

If you go to their website, you'll see that it's full of propaganda and just false information, which makes the rest of us pharmacists look bad, which pisses me off. Of course, the Economist had an article that something like half of pharmacists they surveyed didn't know how EC works. Oh. Em. Gee.

Karen Brauer, the head of PFLI, says that pharmacists should have the right to refuse to fill BCPs because "they don't want to contribute to sin." JFC. If they can refuse BCPs, what about HIV meds? And can I refuse to fill fertility treatments since I have serious issues with that?

These eejits do not represent the majority of pharmacists, but they act like they do. Sort of like the Pat Robertson crowd pretending to speak for all Christians.

[eldan.livejournal.com]

is it just me, or is Karen Brauer also the tail and body of PFLI? She's the only person I've ever seen quoted as a representative of that organisation.

[thekat03.livejournal.com]

oh, but what about the doctors that refuse to prescribe contraception? d:

[feuervogel]

That's not right, either. :P

[eirias.livejournal.com]

Don't get me started on the Pharmacists for Life, either. Not a good idea, because I dissolve into incoherent rage.

Haha! Y'know, I think you should stand by the roadside handing out free contraceptives to every passing female, just to compensate. :)

[feuervogel]

Heh. That's essentially what I'm doing on my current rotation at the Durham County Health Department. Depo, Ortho in all its flavors, Alesse...

Tomorrow's my last day, though. I'll be legal by late July. Eeeexcellent.

[madmanatw.livejournal.com]

I'll be legal by late July.

I thought you were much older than that.

<gd&r>

[tiurin.livejournal.com]

Nah, she was just a prodigy.

[thekat03.livejournal.com]

oooh... can you send me some free nuvarings? *grin*

(j/k. i have plenty from my university's women's clinic. and i highly doubt that they're going to let someone prevent them from prescribing it.)

[evil-fizz.livejournal.com]

Oh, the government has more power over healthcare than you'd probably care to contemplate. They run Medicare and have a role in Medicaid (which is administered by the states.) The government's primary control over things like this is often tied to federal funding. i.e. hospitals that get medicare and medicare dollars are barred from doing certain things. Also, under the Hyde Amendments, public dollars cannot be used to fund abortion (Medicaid beneficiaries, women in the army, and civil servants are affected by this.)

The FDA, sadly, is pretty much powerless in all areas except prescription drugs. They can't even legally regulate dietary supplements and such.

Also, states have different kinds of powers. Public universities are funded with tax dollars and so the legislature can make all kinds of rules regarding them. Normally, this kind of minutae wouldn't be on their radar, but it's politically sensitive, so obviously now is the moment to dive in...