Why Hospitals Should Provide Emergency Contraception to Rape Survivors Emergency contraception is not only a safe and effective method to prevent unwanted pregnancy, but it also can empower women who have been raped with a sense of control and provide an important way to help them to cope with the trauma of sexual assault. Each year, over 32,000 women become pregnant as a result of rape and approximately 50 percent of these pregnancies end in abortion. 2 Very few women know about emergency contraception. A national survey found that only one in ten women aged 18-44 have heard of and know the key facts critical to using emergency contraceptive pills. Unless hospitals inform women of the option to use emergency contraception, women are unlikely to know enough to ask for the treatment.
Emergency contraception is the standard of care for treatment of rape survivors.
Despite these facts, recent studies have found that many hospitals do not provide emergency contraception to women requesting it, even to women who have been sexually assaulted. Nearly one in three New York hospitals fail to offer emergency contraception to rape survivors, and an additional 23 percent have no clear policy on the issue. In Pennsylvania, two-thirds of the general hospitals in the state do not provide emergency contraception to survivors of sexual assault. 10 Requiring hospitals to provide emergency contraception to rape survivors would rectify the current gap in emergency care and ensure that women who have been raped have access to every available means to protect their health and well-being. This estimate is limited to women 18 years or older and is not based on whether the rape is reported.