After taking little action on the Compassionate Care for Rape Victims Bill over the summer, the state Assembly held a public hearing on the issue Thursday.
Assembly Bill 377 would make it mandatory that hospitals give rape victims information on emergency contraception and provide them access to it.
The Senate version of the bill, SB 129, passed the State Senate 27-6. All Senators who voted against the bill were Republican.
The bill was placed in the Assembly Committee on Judiciary and Ethics after it passed out of the Democrat-controlled state Senate and into the Republican-controlled Assembly. After the hearing, the committee will now meet again on the bill, where it may try to amend or change the legislation.
Kelda Helen Roys, executive director for the abortion rights group NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin, said the Republican leadership on the committee might try to add an amendment to render the bill meaningless.
They may try and gut it,"" Roys said.
She said the public hearing is promising news for the bill and that public opinion is on the side of the bill's supporters.
According to Roys, the Democratic takeover of the state Senate and the reduced Republican majority in the state Assembly in the 2006 elections show that moderate Republicans in Democratic-leaning districts need to be wary of voting against this bill.
""There are just not enough Republicans willing to vote against this very common sense bill,"" Roys stated.
The bill has been defeated in recent sessions of the state Legislature, and similar legislation has been passed in 22 counties in Wisconsin and 10 other states.
The anti-abortion groups Pro-Life Wisconsin and Wisconsin Family Action oppose the bill.
Pro-Life Wisconsin said the bill equals ""pre-implantation chemical abortion,"" according to a release. Wisconsin Family Action said the bill might force staff at religious hospitals to go against their beliefs.
""Forcing doctors to immediately provide medication to patients based solely upon their request is simply bad medicine,"" said Matt Sande, director of legislation for Pro-Life Wisconsin, in a statement.
The anti-abortion group Wisconsin Right to Life does not endorse or oppose the legislation, according to a May statement by the group's Executive Director Barbara Lyons.
The assertions of the anti-abortion groups are ""ridiculous,"" according to Roys. She said the bill has nothing to do with abortion and deals solely with birth control.
