A Republican lawmaker is continuing his push to stop University Health Services from giving emergency contraception to female UW-Madison students despite a warning from the state's attorney general Tuesday that his legislation is unconstitutional.
Legislation that Rep. Dan LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, plans to introduce next week violates both female students' right to privacy and the UW System's right to free speech, according to an advisory opinion by Wisconsin Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager.
\Time is of the essence with emergency contraception, and it would be an impermissible infringements on privacy rights to require students to go elsewhere for access to the contraceptive options to which they are constitutionally entitled,"" Lautenschlager wrote.
But LeMahieu, whose legislation would also prevent the UW System from advocating emergency contraception as well as providing it, shrugged off the attorney general's warning.
""It's an advisory opinion,"" LeMahieu said. ""It doesn't carry the weight of the law, so it's her opinion and she's just one person.""
LeMahieu said he thinks UHS was promoting sexual promiscuity in advertisements that ran in The Daily Cardinal and The Badger Herald prior to spring break. The ads said women could receive the morning-after pill, in case their other form of contraception failed while they were on spring break.
""We need to send a message to college students that we expect respectable behavior,"" LeMahieu said. ""When we tell them to plan ahead, that means to think about the consequences of their behavior. I don't believe that solving the problem with emergency contraception deals with sexually transmitted diseases that are being spread and things like that. I think the University Health Services' position is irresponsible.""
However, UHS Executive Director Kathleen Poi said the university is providing an important service in offering women the morning-after pill.
""I think it's responsible that we are providing women with a means of protecting themselves against an unwanted pregnancy,"" Poi said. ""We have no evidence that women use this capriciously, that they use it inappropriately. They are using it when other forms of birth control fail, not because they're not using other forms of birth control.""
