More on the EC controversy

The Patriot News today is all over the controversy involving a rape victim who could not get emergency contraception at a hospital in Lebanon. The paper's coverage includes a front page story (with insight from SF guest blogger Dr. David Toub), an editorial headlined Added Trauma, and a column by Nancy Eshelman. Eshelman's piece includes this:

I'm old enough to remember when birth control was scarce and legal abortion nonexistent. Trust me, we don't want to go back there.

I hope younger women realize how hard some of their moms and grandmas worked to change the rules. Do the young women who have never known a world without the pill, the patch and freedom to choose understand that there's a serious move afoot to steal what they take for granted?

Meanwhile, the editorial board nailed it about the doctor in question:

We respect his personal views, but question how physicians with such strong moral opinions on a particular issue can operate effectively in an emergency room environment where life-and-death decisions must be made quickly and other urgent steps taken that affect a patient's health, mental well-being and future circumstances. Physicians who feel their principles might be compromised in these situations should stick to a specialty or family practice.

Andy in Harrisburg