DENVER - Democrats on Wednesday fast-tracked two proposals vetoedby Bill Owens when he was governor, a sign of the new era votersushered in in November.
A Senate panel approved a bill requiring hospitals to providerape victims with information about the socalled morning-after pill,an emergency contraception. Owens vetoed similar legislation in eachof the past two sessions.
Another Senate committee approved a plan to cut health care costsby having the state negotiate lower prices on generic prescriptiondrugs -- another bill vetoed twice by Owens. The SenateAppropriations Committee also earmarked $146,000 in startup moneyfor the program.
The program is aimed at people who can't afford health insurancebut earn too much to qualify for Medicaid. About 264,000 Coloradanscould sign up in the first year, legislative analysts said.
Evan Dreyer, a spokesman for Gov. Bill Ritter, said the governorwould probably sign the emergency-contraception bill if theDemocratic-controlled General Assembly approves it.
The Colorado Catholic Conference has opposed the bill in thepast. A representative of the organization was unavailable forcomment Wednesday.
The bill, SB60, says individual health care workers who have areligious or moral objection to providing information aboutemergency contraceptives are not required to do so, but thatinstitutions cannot claim that exemption.
The bill applies only to emergency contraceptives that preventpregnancy and not to drugs such as RU-486 that terminate apregnancy.
Tamika Payne, executive director of the Colorado CoalitionAgainst Sexual Assault, said the bill would provide rape victimswith the means to make an informed decision about whether to takethe risk of pregnancy.
'When a woman is victimized, she is having the choice over whatto do with her body taken away,' Payne said. 'To compound that fearwith a pregnancy should be that person's choice.'
Republican members of the committee opposed the bill, arguing itwould create a precedent allowing the Legislature to intrude intothe relationship between doctors and their patients.
The bill's sponsor, Sen. Betty Boyd, D-Lakewood, disagreed.
'This information is part of what a crime victim needs to know inorder to protect themselves,' Boyd said.
Boyd said it's no longer necessary to require emergency rooms todispense contraceptives.
'Because of an FDA (Food and Drug Administration) ruling thatcame down earlier this year, contraception is available over thecounter,' Boyd said. 'You don't generally need the prescription toget it now.'
The effectiveness of emergency contraception decreases as theamount of time after intercourse increases, said Katie Groke-Ellis,spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains.
'We recommend that people take it in the first 12 to 24 hours,'Ellis said.
A Web site maintained by the American Medical Women's Associationsays emergency contraceptives do not affect an existing pregnancy.
