McMahon, Murphy Debate Public Health Committee’s Lack Of Vote In March 2006 In Hartford

Republican Linda McMahon talked Thursday in the U.S. Senate debate about the lack of a vote in March 2006 in the General Assembly’s public health committee that Democrat Chris Murphy co-chaired at the time as a member of the state Senate in Hartford.

The following is The Hartford Courant story on the issue at the time in 2006:

Avoiding the highly charged issues of religion and rape in an election year, a key legislative committee failed to vote Monday on a bill that would have forced Catholic hospitals to offer the Plan B contraceptive pill to rape victims.

Some advocates maintained hope that the bill could be resurrected in an amendment, but legislative veterans said the committee’s lack of action by Monday’s deadline essentially killed the bill for this year.

Sen. Christopher Murphy, co-chairman of the public health committee, said there was “a recognition that this is not going to get a vote” in the Senate and House this year unless there had been an agreement between the Catholic hospitals and those supporting the morning-after pill.

Murphy, a Democrat, is running against Republican U.S. Rep. Nancy Johnson in the 5th Congressional District, but Republicans said his support of the bill would make him unpopular with the Catholic Democrats in Waterbury he needs in order to defeat Johnson.

Some lawmakers said legislators wanted to avoid taking a controversial vote during an election year and simply wanted the issue to fade away.

The bill had exploded into a major issue at the state Capitol over the past three weeks, as advocates for rape victims said that all Connecticut hospitals — including Catholic hospitals in Hartford, New Haven, Bridgeport, and Waterbury — would be required to provide the Plan B prescription medication to prevent a pregnancy in the first 72 hours after a rape.

The bill led to a series of emotional charges and countercharges, including calls for the resignation of James Papillo, the state’s victim advocate, who is also an ordained Catholic deacon.

Papillo testified against the bill, but said that his religious beliefs did not factor into his decision. Instead, he said the bill was unnecessary because he had never had a single complaint in the past six years from a rape victim who said she lacked access to the emergency pill.

Lawmakers clearly wanted to back away from the issues of religion, politics, abortion and contraception.

Some wanted to avoid giving their political opponents a target, something less likely now because no one was forced to take a public vote.

Under the legislature’s rules, the public health committee had a deadline of 5 p.m. Monday for passage of all committee bills under consideration this year. The debate on the Plan B bill did not start until 4:43 p.m., and time ran out after several lawmakers made speeches about the issue.

Rep. Peter Tercyak, a New Britain Democrat, seemed torn over the matter. “I, too, am very concerned about forcing a religious institution to go against its beliefs,” said Tercyak, who is a registered nurse. “This is the kind of decision that just makes me sick. There isn’t any place to be comfortable. … I’m against giving up religious freedom.”

Rep. Ruth Fahrbach, a veteran House Republican from Windsor, noted that state law allows a series of public health exemptions, such as stating that children do not need to receive vaccinations if it is against a parent’s religious beliefs.

“We ought to look at all those statutes that make religious exemptions as well,” Fahrbach said.

Advocates for the Catholic hospitals said that they should not be forced to change their policy against contraception simply because the hospitals accept public money through Medicaid and Medicare. They noted that Catholic hospitals have received public funds for decades and that the legislature has never tried to force the hospitals to perform abortions.

Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell publicly sided with the Catholic hospitals. Her two Democratic opponents — New Haven Mayor John DeStefano and Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy — supported issuance of the pill to rape victims.

The lack of a vote represented a victory for the Catholic hospitals, which had at least six lobbyists watching the debate Monday in the Legislative Office Building in Hartford. The proponents for the rape victims had a similar number of lobbyists who knew that time was running out as the 5 p.m. deadline approached.

But Laura Cordes, the policy director for the East Hartford-based Connecticut Sexual Assault Crisis Services Inc., said the issue was never about the Catholic hospitals. She said there are at least three other non-Catholic hospitals in Connecticut that do not routinely offer the Plan B pill to rape victims. She declined, however, to name those hospitals.

Barry Feldman, general counsel for St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford, said he does not believe that the legislators had dodged the issue.

“I think legislators are courageous, and if there was support for interfering with the Catholic hospitals’ religious beliefs,” there would have been a vote, Feldman said. “The votes just weren’t there.”