With Rep. Terese Berceau leading the way, Assembly Democrats gathered at the Capitol Tuesday to introduce the Women's Health and Education Act, a set of four bills sponsors say would protect women's rights and the health of Wisconsin citizens.
\We're here today because this legislative year, we have witnessed continued and intensified Republican attacks on Wisconsin women's access to birth control and basic women's health care,"" said Berceau, D-Madison.
The Compassionate Care for Rape Victims Act proposes rape victims must be informed of emergency contraceptives, which would have to be dispensed if a patient requests them.
Mark Tuttle, communications director for Pro-Life Wisconsin, said of the bill, ""I'd be afraid that it's going to be requiring certain physicians to do things that are against their conscience.""
He added that because the morning-after pill flushes out the uterine wall, it makes it unwelcoming to a conceived life, promoting chemical abortion.
The second bill, the Birth Control Protection Act, would require pharmacists in the state to dispense contraceptives. Supporters said the bill was necessary and cited access to contraceptives as the number one factor in reducing unintended pregnancies and abortions, but some disagreed.
""It would be hampering the ability to professionally determine which drugs interact with which drugs and what might cause health problems for women or not,"" Tuttle said. ""Requiring them to do anything like that could jeopardize women's health.""
Schools that choose to provide any sort of sexual education, according to the third bill, must do so in an all-inclusive manner, teaching not only abstinence but also about pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection prevention. The second part of the bill states that schools that choose to educate through abstinence-only programs must inform the childrens' parents of their decision to omit the comprehensive information.
State Rep. Tamara Grigsby, D-Milwaukee, who presented the education-based bills, said Milwaukee has the lowest high school graduation rate for blacks in the nation and it is due in part to the high teenage birth rate.
""My question would be, 'How long are we going to continue to stick our heads in the sand and pretend that these things don't exist?',"" Grigsby said.
She added that no proof has been found that abstinence-only programs change teens' sexual decisions. However, studies have shown that a comprehensive sexual education, complete with pregnancy and disease awareness, is one of the best steps toward prevention of pregnancy and STIs.
Bill No. 1:
Would require Wisconsin hospitals to inform rape victims of emergency contraception availability and provide it on request.
Bill No. 2:
Would require pharmacists to dispense contraceptives.
Bill No. 3:
Requires that schools teaching sex education teach more than abstinence-only education.
Bill No. 4:
Requires schools without sex education to recommend that parents discuss the subject with their teens.
