Bill seeks access to morning- after pill Issue may weigh on a Romney run

State lawmakers are pushing a bill that would allow certain Massachusetts pharmacists to dispense the morning-after pill without a prescription and require hospitals to offer it to rape victims, setting up a debate on a hot-button social issue that could present problems for Governor Mitt Romney as he weighs a presidential bid.

When he ran for governor in 2002, Romney told Planned Parenthood that he supported expanding access to the emergency contraception pill, a high dose of hormones that women can take to prevent pregnancy up to five days after sex. But he did not elaborate, and a spokesman for Romney said yesterday that the governor was not prepared to disclose his position on the measure because he wants to examine the bill if it reaches his desk.

The Legislature's Joint Public Health Committee will hold a hearing on the bill tomorrow and may vote as soon as May 4 to send it to the floor of the House and Senate. The Senate approved the bill last year, but former House speaker Thomas M. Finneran, blocked a House vote.

Representative Peter J. Koutoujian, the Waltham Democrat who is cochairman of the public health panel and backs the bill, said the measure has a better chance of passing this time around. Sixteen senators and 65 representatives have cosponsored the bill.

''Certainly the leadership is more supportive of this; maybe it comes down to where the governor stands and whether we have two-thirds in support," Koutoujian said, referring to the margin necessary for the House and Senate to override a veto. ''But we seem to have a window of opportunity here, and I'm hopeful."

On a number of social issues, including same-sex marriage, sex education, and embryonic stem-cell research, Romney has struggled to find a sliver of ground between the views of the Bay State's moderate voters and the conservative voters who wield tremendous influence in the Republican presidential primaries. He faces a similar challenge on the question of emergency contraception.

The Catholic church and other abortion opponents oppose the morning-after pill because they say it quashes a nascent human life by preventing the implantation of a fertilized egg in the uterus. Abortion rights groups argue that it will reduce the number of abortions by preventing unwanted pregnancies, and they insist it is especially important for women who have been raped or abused.

The Food and Drug Administration approved use of the emergency contraception pill as a form of prescription birth control in 1998. But the FDA has refused to grant a request by the pill's manufacturer to sell it over the counter, despite the overwhelming vote of an advisory panel in 2003 recommending the move. In the absence of federal action, six states -- Maine, California, Washington, Alaska, Hawaii, and New Mexico -- have allowed pharmacists to dispense it without a prescription.

The emergency contraception pill, called Plan B, is manufactured by Barr Laboratories. It could prevent as many as 1.5-million unintended pregnancies a year and prevent as many as 700,000 abortions nationally, according to medical and women's organizations who petitioned the FDA in 2003. The pill is not to be confused with RU-486, which is used to end pregnancies up to 49 days after the beginning of the last menstrual cycle.

Under the Massachusetts bill, only pharmacists who have gone through special training and have an agreement with a doctor would be allowed to distribute the emergency contraception pill without a prescription. The training program would be approved by the commissioner of public health to ensure what the legislation calls ''quality assurance." The agreement would ensure that the pharmacist works with a doctor overseeing how the pill is dispensed.

Most of the state's hospitals -- 12 out of 71, according to a 2004 poll by abortion rights groups -- already offer the pill to rape victims, but the bill would require that all of them do so.

''It's very, very important to women, particularly women who are victims of domestic violence," said Dianne Luby, executive director of the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts. ''It's like being a victim twice if you've been raped, you go to a hospital, and you aren't offered emergency contraception. It's just a question of access."

Marie Sturgis, legislative director of Massachusetts Citizens for Life, described the effects of the emergency contraception pill as ''a chemical abortion." ''This is going to abort that embryo that is trying to implant in the uterus," she said.

Although the pill may work for up to five days after sex, its effectiveness declines over time. If taken within 24 hours, it is 95 percent effective in preventing pregnancy, according to Planned Parenthood.

On a questionnaire Planned Parenthood gave to the gubernatorial candidates in 2002, Romney answered yes to the question, ''Do you support efforts to increase access to emergency contraception?"

Romney says he opposes abortion, but on the questionnaire he also expressed support for ''the substance of the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade" and promised not to change the status quo on abortion in Massachusetts.

Scott Greenberger can be reached at greenberger@globe.com.