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Up to 8 percent of sexually assaulted women in the United States become pregnant with the assailant's child. Some undoubtedly do so because hospitals fail to help them in time. The consequences can be devastating.

Rape counselors have documented widespread negligence in Connecticut hospitals when it comes to making emergency contraception available to victims of sexual assault. Connecticut Sexual Assault Crisis Services counselors who accompanied rape victims to hospitals in the first half of 2006 say that 40 percent of them were offered too little or none of the so-called Plan B drug.

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Some 500 rape victims go to Connecticut hospitals for emergency treatment every year. If the rape counselors are right, that means 200 women and girls are receiving insufficient protection. Sixteen of those women are statistically at risk of becoming pregnant and could, if they don't act fast, undergo surgical abortions later.

Catholic hospitals balk at providing emergency contraception because the church believes it destroys the life begun when a woman's egg is fertilized by sperm. But scientists say Plan B may prevent fertilization.

The drug also work by stopping the fertilized egg from attaching to the uterus. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says pregnancy begins at the point of implantation. So do federal regulations, which state that "pregnancy encompasses the period of time from implantation until delivery." Because of this, several states, including Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York, require all hospitals to dispense Plan B.

As lawmakers, scientists and theologians argue over when life begins, hundreds of sexually assaulted girls and women in Connecticut are given little or no say in a matter that is far from an abstract parsing of medical terms for them.

Doctors and pharmacists should not be forced to act against their consciences. But an injured woman must get the safe and legal care she needs as quickly as possible, to avoid even more harm. She shouldn't have to hospital-shop desperately for contraceptives in the dead of night when pharmacies are closed and the odds of stopping pregnancy decrease with every passing hour.

There must be someone inside every hospital, whether secular or religious, who will offer, immediately, the compassionate help a distraught and wounded woman needs.

No. It's not that Plan B may prevent fertilization, Plan B DOES prevent fertilization. No egg to be fertilized. No fertilized egg to prevent from implanting. Nothing dies except sperm.

This just makes me so furious. How many times do I have to scream and yell YOU CANNOT STOP A WOMAN FROM ABORTING A PREGNANCY BUT YOU HAVE THE CHANCE TO STOP HER FROM GETTING PREGNANT IN THE FIRST PLACE IF YOU JUST GIVE HER THE ******** EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTION.

Plan B = fewer abortions. Why, why, WHY is this a bad thing??

stressed

No. It's not that Plan B may prevent fertilization, Plan B DOES prevent fertilization. No egg to be fertilized. No fertilized egg to prevent from implanting. Nothing dies except sperm.

This just makes me so furious. How many times do I have to scream and yell YOU CANNOT STOP A WOMAN FROM ABORTING A PREGNANCY BUT YOU HAVE THE CHANCE TO STOP HER FROM GETTING PREGNANT IN THE FIRST PLACE IF YOU JUST GIVE HER THE ******** EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTION.

Plan B = fewer abortions. Why, why, WHY is this a bad thing??

stressed

Catholic-run hospitals. . . . ?

Oddly, many Catholic hospitals DO dispense contraception (usually a woman who's on it when she's admitted is just allowed to continue taking her own). Religious beliefs don't completely dictate how a hospital is run.

And it is their right to prohibit things based on religious beliefs. But if you disagree, and they're the only hospital in town, well, that sucks, but some people live without running water and they deal with it too.