House Committee on Finance (FIN) - chair: Oshiro, vice chair: Lee

Wednesday, February 27, 2008,

Testifier: Suzanne Meisenzahl, LWV of Hawaii, Women's Health & Safety Comm. Chair.

Click here to view HB466

The League of Women Voters strongly supports HB466, HD1 (HSCR217-08). Emergency Room Contraception (EC) is safe and effective. In the case of the trauma of sexual assault it can prevent the further trauma of pregnancy. According to Planned Parenthood's statistics more than 300,000 women are sexually assaulted each year in the U.S. Of these an estimated 25,000 will become pregnant as a result. About 22,000 of these pregnancies would be prevented if all women who were raped used EC. A survey of registered voters conducted for Planned Parenthood Action Fund in June 2001confirmed these findings - three of four voters favored requiring all hospitals to make EC available to women who had been raped. Further, 53 percent of voters said they would be more likely to vote for a candidate who supports mandatory EC availability in hospitals for sexual assault survivors. Please support the access and availability of EC through HB466. Thank you for the opportunity to support this bill.