'Morning-after' bill approved
By Lynda Arakawa and Gordon Y.K. Pang
Advertiser Capitol Bureau
Hospitals would be required to inform sex assault victims about emergency contraceptives, also known as the "morning-after pill," and provide them if requested, under a bill that gained final legislative approval yesterday.
The Senate passed Senate Bill 658 by an 18-6 vote, with all five Republicans and one Democrat voting against it. The measure, passed by the House earlier, now goes to Gov. Linda Lingle.
The bill's opponents said it is tantamount to abortion and would force church-run hospitals to provide emergency contraceptives even if they oppose such procedures. Opponents also found the penalties too harsh — a $5,000 fine for each instance in which a victim is denied information, along with suspension or revocation of a license after two violations.
Supporters, who say emergency contraception is not the same as abortion, contend that the bill would spare rape victims the additional trauma of a pregnancy resulting from the assault.
House and Senate conferees reached agreement on other bills yesterday and sent the reconciled measures to the respective houses for a final floor vote next week.
Among them is House Bill 373, which would repeal a law prohibiting candidates from displaying campaign signs earlier than 45 days before or 10 days after an election. A recent attorney general's opinion declared such a prohibition unconstitutional.
Another, House Bill 298, directs the governor to begin planning for a new jail on vacant land on the site of Halawa Community Correctional Center to replace the aging O'ahu Community Correctional Center.
House Bill 298 instructs the administration to conduct soil tests at the site. Former Gov. Ben Cayetano had begun negotiations with a private developer for a new jail in Halawa, but had to hand the job to Lingle after running into snags just before he left office in December. Lingle has been noncommittal on future corrections facilities.
Another bill headed to the House and Senate floors would allow victims of domestic or sexual violence to take unpaid leave from work to receive medical or psychological care, to relocate or to take legal action related to the violence. It would also allow parents to take leave if their minor child is a victim.
Conferees also moved a bill to limit government liability for injuries at public skateparks. The latest version of Senate Bill 975, approved yesterday by House-Senate conferees, would absolve public agencies or employees of liability if a person gets hurt while using a public skatepark, unless the injury stems from government failure to maintain or repair the park.
Conferees also moved out House Bill 1214, which limits the state's liability when people suffer injuries on state parklands and hiking trails.
The bill absolves the government of liability if warning signs are posted at potentially dangerous areas. It also establishes a risk assessment group to act as consultant to the Department of Land and Natural Resources to determine where warning signs are needed.
House lawmakers reluctantly accepted the Senate's position that the state not be compelled to post warning signs where an area has not been upgraded or improved for use as a park or trail — places known as unimproved lands.
Conferees shelved House Bill 248, which would have banned smoking in public schools and at public school functions. Senate Labor Committee Chairman Brian Kanno, D-19th (Kapolei, Makakilo, Waikele), said negotiators for the United Public Workers union and the Department of Education would meet this morning on the issue. Lawmakers said that if the issue of a smoking ban is not accepted as part of a union contract, they could take up the matter next year.
Meanwhile, tensions rose between House and Senate lawmakers over the issue of surprise inspections of adult residential care homes instead of giving notice of the month and day of the week that a care home may be inspected.
Senators want the Health Department to conduct annual unannounced visits and to have the option of giving notice before inspections for relicensing purposes.
The House's counterproposal includes unannounced annual visits but also requires the department to give care-home operators at least 40 hours notice of inspections for relicensing. Care-home operators who have been notified that they have violations or are being investigated would not receive notice.
Sens. Rosalyn Baker and Suzanne Chun Oakland said the proposal, offered by Rep. Dennis Arakaki, was unacceptable because it does not give the department the flexibility to be able to conduct unannounced inspections for relicensing purposes.
Baker, D-5th (W. Maui, S. Maui), noted that establishments such as bars and nursing homes are subject to unannounced inspections.
Arakaki, D-30th (Moanalua, Kalihi Valley, Alewa), countered that those establishments are not nursing homes. He said he takes care of his mother in his home and if anyone were to show up any day, the impromptu visit would probably turn up something wrong.
