Chris KempUW-Eau Claire students participated Wednesday in a state-wide “Day of Solidarity” in protest of Wisconsin Assembly Bill 343, a bill that would restrict the advertising, prescribing and dispensing of emergency contraception on UW System campuses.
The event, organized through Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin and United Council of UW Students, encouraged students to “visually show their disapproval of Assembly Bill 343 the UW birth control ban by wearing red cloth flags on their backpacks and calling their legislators,” according to a release distributed by Planned Parenthood and United Council.
State Rep. Dan LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, authored AB 343 and introduced it, along with the support of 39 other state legislators, to the State Assembly April 19. The bill was referred to the Committee on Children and Families.
Sophomore Erika Dinkel-Smith, Women’s Issues Chair of Student Senate and primary organizer of the solidarity effort at Eau Claire, said the focus of the protest is about the rights of women and their access to emergency contraceptives.
“It’s all about access to this medication because when it comes down to it, you have 72 hours … to get to a hospital (and) find a ride, for those who don’t have vehicles,” she said, adding that many university campuses are “out in the middle of nowhere, where the hospital is 45 to 50 minutes away.”
Jeffrey Grothman, legislative assistant to LeMahieu, said it’s not about banning the morning-after pill from students, but LeMahieu is concerned with the seriousness of the issue and the health and safety of students.
“When you’re dealing with serious issues involving potential pregnancy and issues involving relationships, (and) when you’re involving a serious form of medication and those types of things … there are, with any sort of serious issue, serious ramifications that come with that,” he said.
“By all means a woman should have an opportunity to get some help with highly trained professionals at a hospital,” Grothman said. “There are still questions regarding long-term implications that still have not been answered.”
He added that this pill is a serious form of medication that should be taken at a hospital.
According to the language used in the bill’s final draft, UW System health services would not be allowed to advertise, prescribe or dispense “a hormonal medication or combination of medications that is administered only after sexual intercourse for the postcoital control of fertility to a registered student or to any other person entitled to receive university health care services.”
Grothman said this phrasing limits the ban to emergency contraceptives, namely the morning-after pill, stating the claim made by those who believe the original intent of the bill was to ban all birth control from UW System campuses is “a salacious accusation that has been tossed out by members of the media and certain interest groups.”
He said student reactions received by LeMahieu’s office have been less than flattering and less than civil.
“We’ve been slightly upset at the tone that some students at Eau Claire have taken regarding their opposition to the bill through trying to use lewd messages on the phone or by e-mail to the representative regarding the bill,” he said.
Student Senate passed a resolution Monday in opposition to AB 343. Dinkel-Smith submitted the resolution, which passed with a majority vote, in conjunction with Senator Ashley Wickenhauser and the Student Life and Diversity Commission.
“I’m no amendment scholar, I’m no lawyer, I don’t have a law degree,” Dinkel-Smith said. “But what I can tell you is if this bill does go through, it will put an incredible strain on female students.”
