Emergency Contraception in North Carolina's Emergency Departments
|
Emergency Contraception in North Carolina's Emergency Departments |
|
1/4/08: This study sponsored by NCWU and NCWU members NCCASA, Planned
Parenthood and NARAL has just been published this week in the NC
Medical Journal.
To read the paper "Emergency Contraception for Sexual Assault Victims in North
Carolina Emergency Departments," follow this link:
http://www.ncmedicaljournal.com/nov-dec-07/toc1207.shtml
Approximately 25,000 women in the United States become pregnant each year as a result of rape. An estimated 22,000 of these unintended pregnancies—or 88 percent—could be prevented if sexual assault victims had timely access to Emergency Contraception.
Pregnancy prevention is considered by the American Medical Association a necessary component of treatment for women who have been sexually assaulted.
Emergency contraception (EC) is a form of birth control that can be taken up to 5 days after intercourse. Several studies both nationally and by individual states have shown that hospitals are not consistently providing EC to survivors of sexual assault in their emergency departments.
A coalition was formed in 2004 by several groups wanting to improve services to victims of sexual assault and to determine whether or not EC was available to sexual assault survivors in North Carolina. Those groups included: North Carolina Coalition Against Sexual Assault (NCCASA), North Carolina Women United, Planned Parenthood of Central North Carolina, Planned Parenthood Health Systems, NARAL Pro-Choice North Carolina, and Ipas.
Together this group wrote and distributed a survey to 115 hospitals with emergency departments in NC. One hundred and two hospitals (89%) responded with information regarding their policies in treating victims of sexual assault. [Survey; cover letter; enclosed fact sheet (fact sheet in Spanish)]
Seventy-six hospitals (75%) reported that it was standard policy to dispense EC on-site to sexual assault survivors. Nine of these hospitals reported exceptions to their policy based on the refusal of the provider on duty to dispense medication. Twenty-six hospitals (25%) reported that it was not standard policy to dispense EC. In addition, hospitals located in rural counties were less likely to dispense EC than hospitals in urban counties.
For more details see survey highlights.
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Contacts:
The data from this survey has been updated since the original
release on March 1, 2005.
Please check any documents on the site for a revision
date.
We do thank the hospitals that have improved their procedures as a
result of this study.
Project Sponsors
North Carolina Women United
PO Box 10013, Raleigh, NC 27605, 866-518-7657, info@ncwu.org, www.ncwu.org
NCWU Members
NC Coalition Against Sexual Assault
183 Wind Chime Court, Suite 100, Raleigh, NC 27615, 919-431-0995, www.nccasa.org
Other Project Supporters
NARAL Pro-Choice North Carolina, Planned
Parenthood of Central North Carolina
Planned Parenthood Health Systems,
Inc., Ipas
Page last changed: 04-Jan-2008