News Briefs
Bill to require hospitals to offer EC to rape victims
Hospitals that receive federal funds would have to advise rape victims of the availability of emergency contraception (EC) to prevent pregnancy under bipartisan legislation that has been introduced into the U.S. House. "The idea that someone cannot prevent an unwanted pregnancy that’s the result of an assault is just inconceivable to me," said Sen. Jon Corzine (D-NJ), referring to hospitals that do not routinely provide rape victims with access to EC, a two-pill regimen that can reliably prevent pregnancy if taken shortly after unprotected intercourse.
Corzine said that of the roughly 300,000 women raped each year in the United States, between 20,000 and 30,000 will get pregnant as a result of the assault. Backers of the legislation said they were motivated, in part, by guidelines for the treatment of rape victims issued by the U.S. Department of Justice last year that include no mention of emergency contraception.
Catholics and other religious groups have argued that because emergency contraception can work to prevent a fertilized egg from implanting, it is tantamount to an abortion. Unlike the abortion pill RU486, emergency contraception will not interrupt an established pregnancy.
Physicians more religious than researchers believed
University of Chicago researchers were surprised by findings of their survey examining religion in medicine, which showed that most doctors in the United States believe in God and an afterlife. The lead author, Farr Curlin, MD, of the University of Chicago’s MacLean Center for Medical Ethics, said the results disproved the cultural idea that religion and science are at odds. In the survey of 1,044 doctors nationwide, 76% said they believe in God, 59% said they believe in some sort of afterlife, and 55% said their religious beliefs influence how they practice medicine.
The survey showed that physicians are more varied in their religious affiliations than the general population. While more than 80% of the U.S. population is Protestant or Catholic, 60% of doctors said they were from either group. Compared with the general population, more doctors were Jewish (14% vs. 2%); Hindu (5% vs. less than 1%); and Muslim (just under 3% vs. less than 1%).
"We were surprised to find that physicians were as religious as they apparently are," he says.
Previous studies have suggested that fewer than half of scientists believe in God, Curlin wrote. While medicine is science-based, doctors, unlike scientists, have direct contact with patients in life and death situations, which might account for the differing views, according to Curlin. The results of the study appear in the July issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
Illinois bill seeks to put pricing in patients’ hands
Illinois consumers now have a legal right to health care pricing and information on facilities’ outpatient procedural performances.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed the "Illinois Health Care Consumer’s Right-to-Know" bill in June, requiring the Illinois Department of Public Health to post average charges for 30 outpatient procedures, along with the number of times a year each facility performs the procedures.
Illinois joins Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Utah in giving performance and fee data from hospitals and medical centers to consumers.
Hospitals that receive federal funds would have to advise rape victims of the availability of emergency contraception (EC) to prevent pregnancy under bipartisan legislation that has been introduced into the U.S. House.Subscribe Now for Access
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