REFERENCE TITLE: sexual assault survivors; protocols

State of Arizona

House of Representatives

Fifty-fifth Legislature

First Regular Session

2021

HB 2742

Introduced by

Representatives Hernandez D: Fernandez, Longdon

AN ACT

amending title 36, chapter 1, article 2, Arizona Revised Statutes, by adding section 36-147; relating to the department of health services.

(TEXT OF BILL BEGINS ON NEXT PAGE)

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Arizona:

Section 1. Title 36, chapter 1, article 2, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended by adding section 36-147, to read:

START_STATUTE36-147. Sexual assault survivors; information materials; protocols

A. The Department shall develop, produce and distribute informational materials about emergency contraception and abortion services that are specifically designed for sexual assault survivors and that are presented in a factually accurate and unbiased manner.

B. The Department shall develop protocols that use the informational materials and describe how health care institutions, law enforcement agencies and colleges and universities, respectively, must provide this information to sexual assault survivors.

C. For situations in which a sexual assault occurred recently enough that emergency contraception may be effective:

1. The Department's protocols for law enforcement agencies and colleges and universities must include providing information to the sexual assault survivor about the safety, effectiveness and availability of emergency contraception, including information that emergency contraception does not cause an abortion.

2. the Department's protocols for health care institutions must require health care institutions to do all of the following:

(a) Provide the sexual assault survivor with objective and factually accurate written and oral information about the full range of medical options, including the safety, effectiveness and availability of emergency contraception, including information that emergency contraception does not cause an abortion.

(b) Orally inform the sexual assault survivor of the option to receive emergency contraception at the health care institution.

(c) Promptly provide to the sexual assault survivor emergency contraception on request.

(d) Ensure that all personnel who provide care to a sexual assault survivor are trained to provide medically and factually accurate and objective information about emergency contraception.

(e) Provide information to the sexual assault survivor about legal abortion when medically appropriate.

D. Health care institutions, law enforcement agencies and colleges and universities shall:

1. follow the Department's protocols for assisting sexual assault survivors that are written for health care institutions, law enforcement agencies and colleges and universities, respectively, including the use of the Department's informational materials.

2. ensure that each person who takes a report from, or provides care to, a sexual assault survivor has received training to implement the Department's protocols.

E. The department may request the assistance of the attorney general, the Arizona board of regents or a community college district governing board to use the entity's regulatory authority to ensure that health care institutions, law enforcement agencies and colleges and universities, respectively, follow the applicable protocols. END_STATUTE

Sec. 2. Legislative findings

The Legislature finds that:

1. According to the centers for disease control and prevention, nearly one in five American women are sexually assaulted at some point in their lives—nearly two million each year.

2. Adding to the trauma, about five percent of sexual assault survivors become pregnant as a result of the attack.

3. Nearly ninety percent of these pregnancies could be prevented if sexual assault survivors had timely access to emergency contraception.

4. Approved for use by the United States food and drug administration, emergency contraception prevents pregnancy after sexual intercourse. Emergency contraceptives available in the United States and approved by the United States food and drug administration have no effect on existing pregnancies.

5. While standards of emergency care established by the American medical association require that sexual assault survivors be counseled about their risk of pregnancy and offered emergency contraception, many hospitals fail to provide emergency contraception to sexual assault survivors.

6. The United States department of justice recommends that sexual assault survivors be given information about both emergency contraception and the medicine itself, if requested.

7. While law enforcement agencies and universities and colleges receive thousands of reports of sexual assault each year, they often do not counsel survivors about the availability of emergency contraception.