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Newsletter: Fall 2005: What does the Mayor’s EC initiative mean for Sexual Assault Survivors in NYC?If you are a regular reader of the Torch, you already know that each year, over 600,000 women are raped in the United States, and, that in that last year, it is estimated that 12,000 sexual assaults occurred in New York City.You also probably (know) that, each year, approximately 25,000 women in the United States become pregnant as a result of rape or incest. Also, it is not news to you that an estimated 22,000 of these pregnancies — or 88%— could be prevented if sexual assault victims had timely access to emergency contraception. It is this striking statistic that fuels pending national legislation – the Compassionate Assistance for Rape Emergencies Act, or CARE Act – that would guarantee survivors of rape access to and information about emergency contraception (EC). New York State and New York City already have laws in place guaranteeing that local clinicians offer and make available EC to patients reporting sexual assault. All this being understood, and with laws guaranteeing EC as part of emergency care for rape survivors in New York already in place, how will Mayor Bloomberg’s initiative to expand women’s access to emergency contraception benefit sexual assault survivors? Under the Healthy Women/Healthy Babies Initiative, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) will spend $1 million on the Emergency Contraception Education and Outreach Campaign to increase awareness of emergency contraception. As part of the campaign, DOHMH officials will visit pharmacists in neighborhoods with high rates of unintended pregnancy to educate them about EC and encourage them to stock Plan B, as well as provide information about the pills to their patients and display information about EC in their pharmacies. In addition, New York City Health and Hospital facilities will begin offering advance prescriptions for EC to women of childbearing age to ensure that they have access to the pills even when doctors' offices are closed.(Bloomberg Press Release, PR- 149-05, April 21, 2005). While the laws guaranteeing sexual assault survivors emergency contraception in emergency rooms are fundamental and hugely important, it is also important to increase the accessibility of Plan B to women. The current Mayoral initiative has the potential to provide access to Emergency Contraception to thousands of more sexual assault survivors than previous laws could. The number of sexual assault survivors who access emergency healthcare constitute a mere fraction of the number of rapes that actually occur. Researchers estimate only 1.5 (a weighted estimate) to 17.2 percent (non-weighted estimate) of women who experience sexual assault as adults will seek out post-rape acute medical care. Estimates are even lower for men, adolescents, and non-English speaking victims, lesbians, gay men or transgender persons and otherwise marginalized populations. And what about sexual assault survivors who don’t identify themselves as such but are in situations where they are being forced or coerced to have sex or do not have control over contraception? All forms of coerced sex – from violent rape to cultural/economic obligations to have sex when it is not wanted – put women a risk of unwanted pregnancies, in addition to a myriad of other mental and physical health problems. For this significant group of sexual assault survivors, The Mayor’s EC initiative has the potential to help prevent thousands more unwanted pregnancies and alleviate a tremendous amount of mental anguish for survivors of rape. If effective, the mayor’s initiative will help ensure that women who cannot or choose not to access emergency sexual assault services will be more aware of the effectiveness of EC as well as where and how to access it. Moreover, if the initiative recognizes that a sizeable proportion of the women in NYC who seek EC seek it because they are experiencing forced / coerced sex, and if this information informs their campaign, than the project has the potential to help women 1) become more aware that they are experiencing abuse; 2) that when they are forced / coerced to have sex that EC is readily available and 3) that other important help is available as well, like rape crisis counseling, reproductive healthcare, legal advocacy and housing support services. The Alliance applauds the Mayor’s initiative to increase awareness and access to EC, and we are hopeful the campaign will aim to reach the many women in NYC who seek EC because they are having non-consensual sex. From a public health perspective, we are confident the DOHMH and HHC will recognize the efficiency and benefit of including information on the other important health services available to women experiencing forced sex in conjunction with the EC initiative. ← previous article | next article → |
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Betsy Gotbaum, Public Advocate
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