Helping Sexual Assault Survivors in New York<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

 

Every year more than 21,000 women are raped in New York State. If these sexual assault survivors go to their local hospital for emergency care, there is no guarantee that they will receive contraception to prevent pregnancy. Emergency contraception is against the religious teaching of many New York hospitals. Currently these hospitals are not required to provide contraception, information about contraception, or even a referral to those institutions that might provide both.

 

The Institute for Humanist Studies is working to change this unacceptable situation. The Institute’s Director of Public Policy, and registered lobbyist, Dr Timothy Gordinier, is lobbying New York State Senators and Assembly members to pass a new law requiring every hospital in New York State to make emergency contraception available to every rape victim seeking emergency care. The proposed legislation would also allow a wider range of health care professionals to prescribe emergency contraception, and improve other support services for sexual assault survivors.

 

Members of local Humanist groups across the state have helped this campaign by writing to their local representatives requesting that they vote for the legislation. In February, the legislation passed the New York State Assembly and we are campaigning hard to get it through the New York Senate.

The Institute added the full-time staff position of Public Policy Director in 2002 in order to ensure that the Humanist voice is heard in the political arena. Dr Gordinier is the only full-time Humanist public policy director in the United States. Based in Albany, capital of New York State, the Institute’s primary public policy focus is at the state level, but it also provides analysis and advocacy on national and international policy issues.

 

Matt Cherry, Executive Director, Institute for Humanist Studies

 

For more information on the Institute’s public policy work visit http://www.humaniststudies.org/policy.html.