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Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Johnson County will pay for rape victim medication
It becomes second county to approve payments after state program paused
Aug. 31, 2023 12:50 pm, Updated: Aug. 31, 2023 7:46 pm
IOWA CITY — The Johnson County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Thursday to provide funding for emergency contraception for victims of sexual assault and rape as a state program remains in limbo.
Supervisors voted 5-0 to approve a $10,000 funding request from the Johnson County Sexual Assault Response Team to cover the cost of emergency contraception and support services to rape victims.
The move comes as more than 160 reimbursement requests for emergency contraception provided to sexual assault survivors from across the state are pending approval from the Iowa Attorney General’s Office. And it follows a similar vote in early August by Polk County supervisors to provide free emergency contraception and crisis services for victims of sexual assault and rape.
According to records obtained by The Gazette, and first reported by Iowa Public Radio, pending reimbursement requests from hospitals and pharmacies across the state total about $7,000.
Republican Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird paused the funding as part of an audit of the victim services administered through her office.
Though the payments are not explicitly required by law, it has been the state’s longtime policy to cover the cost of emergency contraception from the victim compensation fund. In rare cases, the fund also has paid for abortions for rape victims.
The Attorney General’s Office said in April it was reviewing the practice to evaluate “whether this is an appropriate use of public funds" as it conducts an audit of victim assistance services. The Attorney General’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday on the current state of its review process.
Bird has not publicly said why she paused reimbursement for those services, and her office has not identified particular concerns.
Iowa law requires the state to pay for many of the expenses facing sexual assault survivors who seek medical help, including the cost of forensic examinations to collect evidence and treatment for sexually transmitted infections. That is funded through the state's victim compensation fund, which comes from fines, fees and penalties paid by criminals. No taxpayer dollars go into the fund.
Sexual assault nurse examiners have said hospitals and pharmacies are continuing to dispense medications to victims who request them, and continue to submit invoices to Bird’s office seeking reimbursement. Patients are not being billed at this point.
“Providing emergency contraception to victims of sexual assault is a vital part of providing care,” Guillermo Morales, executive director of the Johnson County Board of Supervisors office, wrote in a memo recommending supervisors approve the funding for the local Sexual Assault Response Team.
The team consists of sexual assault nurse examiners, emergency room staff, rape victim advocates, law enforcement officers and prosecutors. The team helps sexual assault victims navigate the medical and legal systems, as well as help them on their healing process. For the fiscal year that ended in June, the team saw 101 patients. Of those, 46 were prescribed emergency contraception.
“AG Bird’s decision to stop payments for emergency contraception places a financial burden on the patient to obtain this necessary emergency contraceptive medication and adds undue stress beyond the experienced trauma,” Morales wrote. “Additionally, it puts patients who share a medical insurance plan with their abuser in danger. Figuring out how to pay for necessary emergency contraception is not a hardship patients should have to endure.”
The Johnson County Sexual Assault Response Team is a grant-funded program that has faced budget cuts over the past three years. While the team has no intention of charging patients for the medication, they do not have the funds available to absorb the cost, Morales wrote.
Johnson County Supervisor Lisa Green-Douglass, who serves as the board’s chair, said she voted to approve the funding to avoid victims of rape potentially being denied timely access to contraception to prevent unintended pregnancy and abortion care resulting from a crime. Cost, she said, should never be a barrier for rape victims seeking medical care, and urged the Attorney General’s Office to reinstate the reimbursements.
“I think pulling the funding is politically motivated,” Green-Douglass said.
Bird has been a vocal opponent of abortion. But sexual assault nurse examiners, along with other victim advocates, have emphasized that emergency contraceptives are not abortion pills. The medication delays or prevents ovulation, preventing a pregnancy from occurring, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
“We live in a rape culture, and … putting victims in a situation where they may have to pay for medication … that would prevent potential pregnancy after having been assaulted is just underscoring the fact that we are in fact in a rape culture,” Green-Douglass told The Gazette.
Linn County
In Linn County, Supervisor Ben Rogers said county officials still are working with the local sexual assault response team to explore options.
Local representatives at the Riverview Center, a Cedar Rapids-based nonprofit that provides care for sexual assault victims, are getting data on the number of cases last year in which emergency contraceptives were used, he said. Then, county officials will use that to determine what the funding opportunities could be.
“We’re still very interested, we just want to get what the dollar amount is,” Rogers said.
Marissa Payne of The Gazette contributed to this report.
Comments: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com
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