DENVER — Gov. Bill Owens, a Roman Catholic who has campaigned on conservative values, could face a tough choice when he decides whether to sign a bill that would force hospitals to tell rape victims about emergency contraception.
Many fellow Republicans say the bill, given final legislative approval on March 29, violates Catholic hospitals' freedom of religion by forcing them to offer information about abortion. Democrats say the bill is not about abortion but offers help to women whose bodies have been violated.
In the middle is Owens. He refused on March 29 to say whether he would veto the bill, sign it or let it become law without his signature. His spokesman, Dan Hopkins, said he would "carefully consider" it. He has 10 days to decide.
Republicans blocked similar versions of the bill over the past two years, when they were in charge. Democrats captured both the House and Senate last November and pushed the measure — House Bill 1042 — through.
State Rep. Keith King, R-Colorado Springs, said the bill raised serious questions about religious liberty. He cited objections from Catholics who say their rights would be violated if they were forced to tell women how to avoid getting pregnant.
"Are we going to value the freedom of religion and the individual expression of freedom of religion?" King asked.
State Rep. Fran Coleman, D-Denver, said the bill is about assault, not religious freedom.
"This bill is about contraception, it's about a violation to your body, just like you would want a bullet removed from your body," she said during a debate in the House.
Denver Roman Catholic Archbishop Charles Chaput has objected to the bill because it doesn't require health-care workers to tell rape victims that some medications stop a fertilized egg from being implanted, which he says amounts to abortion.
Chaput said the church does allow rape victims to takes steps to prevent ovulation when there is no risk that a fertilized egg would be affected.
Lawmakers also received copies of a letter from Colorado Springs Bishop Michael Sheridan opposing the bill.
Amanda Mountjoy, a spokeswoman for the abortion-rights group Republican Majority for Choice, said the measure simply provides information to rape victims about medical procedures.
"This has nothing to do with abortion. It is criminal for anyone, including Gov. Owens, to play Russian roulette with a rape survivor's medical treatment," she said.
This is not the first time Owens has publicly faced the hot-button issues of abortion and reproductive rights. Shortly after taking office in 1999, he was criticized by some for not taking a stronger stand against abortion.
His senior adviser, Dick Wadhams, tried to quell the dissent by saying Owens "was raised and remains a Roman Catholic. That gives a framework for him to be accurately pro-life."
At a March 29 news conference at the Capitol, 43-year-old Mimi Schaefer, who said she was raped when she was 15, supported the emergency contraceptive bill. She said religion and politics should play no part in the debate.
"The focus should be on professional help and care, not on religion," she said.