Healey raps loophole on Plan B pill

Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey said yesterday that all Massachusetts hospitals should provide emergency contraception to rape victims, putting herself at odds with the administration of Governor Mitt Romney as a new ''morning-after pill" law is poised to go into effect.

Healey, a Republican who plans to run for governor if Romney mounts a run for president, made her comments one day after the Department of Public Health disclosed a new policy that would allow Catholic and other privately run hospitals to avoid giving out the pill, even though the new law says such services must be provided to ''each female rape victim." The law takes effect Dec. 14.

''I obviously think it should be available to all victims of rape at all hospitals," Healey said, when asked what she thought of the DPH policy guidelines. She also said: ''I can't speak to the law -- I'm not a lawyer, and I'll leave that to our legal analysts -- but I do think it's extremely important that victims of rape should be able to access emergency contraception in whatever medical setting they present themselves."

It was the latest instance in recent months that Healey has distanced herself from Romney on a divisive social issue as he tests the waters for a White House run. Healey also came out against Romney's veto of the morning-after pill law -- a veto the Legislature overrode -- and came out in favor of civil unions for gay couples.

Outraged at the new policy guidelines, the four chief sponsors of the legislation, all Democrats, wrote to Public Health Commissioner Paul J. Cote Jr. yesterday, demanding that he ''reconsider any attempt to promote noncompliance with the Emergency Contraception law."

''The determination of the Department of Public Health to ignore the Legislature's clearly stated intent on this matter constitutes a gross violation of its obligation to implement the laws of the Commonwealth faithfully and without prejudice," the lawmakers' letter said.

Cote, in an interview, said that neither Healey's opinion nor that of the legislators would affect the department's actions.

''My answer to any folks, legislators or otherwise, is we are doing our level best to deal with what we have before us," Cote said.

The emergency contraception pill, also called Plan B, is a high dose of hormones that women can take up to five days after sex to prevent pregnancy.

Massachusetts was the eighth state to authorize pharmacists to dispense the pill without a prescription, when legislators overrode Romney's veto of the law in September.

At issue in the debate is a separate state law, enacted decades ago, that says that privately run hospitals cannot be forced to provide abortions or contraception. Because lawmakers did not delete that law when enacting the new one, Cote said, it remains in effect.

Romney said yesterday that if lawmakers are upset with his administration's application of the statutes, they should file a bill that resolves the discrepancy between the new law and the existing one. But he declined to say whether he would support a bill that eliminates the conflict between the two laws.

A potential candidate for president in 2008, Romney describes himself as ''prolife." Though Cote reports directly to Romney, the governor offered remarks yesterday that left some activists confused about his position on the issue.

''My own view is that every hospital should provide to rape victims information about emergency contraception or emergency contraception itself," he told reporters. ''But, again, we have to follow the law, and when there are two laws on the books that have conflicting elements, there has to be an effort to try to make them conform with one another."

Marie Sturgis, executive director of Massachusetts Citizens for Life, reiterated her group's opposition to the emergency contraception pill.

''I'd like to refrain from commenting on the governor because his position is confusing," Sturgis said. ''Kerry Healey is clear. She supports abortion and this legislation, so I will confine my remarks to her and the issue itself."

Angus McQuilken, public affairs director of the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, said the apparent misgivings with the DPH policy expressed by Romney and Healey can be addressed easily. ''All they need to do is tell their agency to back down," McQuilken said.

Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly said the Romney administration has found conflict in two statutes that ''can be read in harmony" and said he would inform the DPH of his legal opinion on the matter shortly.

''This [new law] applies to a narrow class of people, but it protects them," Reilly, a Democrat who is planning to run for governor next year, said of rape victims. ''To try to get around this with a back-door regulation is just wrong."