Why Does the Illinois Hospital Association Care More About the Industry’s Profits Over Protecting Women from Rape and Sexual Assault?

By SEIU Healthcare

IHA’s Opposition to Requiring Hospitals to Have Trained Nurses to Treat Rape Victims Called “Offensive and Repulsive”

CONTACT:  scott.vogel@seiuhcil.org

(August 18, 2018, Chicago) – Last week Governor Bruce Rauner signed legislation to require Illinois hospitals to have trained nurses available to treat victims of rape and sexual assault. The Chicago Tribune reported that the new law stipulates that “when a victim arrives, a trained provider is present within 90 minutes.” Hospitals will have until Jan. 1, 2022, to comply with the legislation.

IHAIn response, Denise Crosby wrote a column in the Beacon News about the requirement to train nurses to treat rape victims. Crosby quoted the Illinois Hospital Association (IHA) who lobbied against the legislation because the IHA felt the requirement was too expensive and too complex to implement.

“Three-and-a-half years may seem like a long time for implementation, but the Illinois Hospital Association was against this “important bill,” said association spokesman Danny Chun, because “the timeline seemed too short” for such a complex and expensive process.

In response, Anne Igoe, Vice-President of the Health Systems Division at SEIU Healthcare Illinois Indiana issued the following statement:

“The IHA’s opposition to legislation requiring hospitals to have trained nurses to treat victims of rape and sexual is offensive and repulsive.

“It is a shocking display of callousness, insensitivity and outright misogyny for the IHA to lobby against a bill designed to treat and protect victims of rape, especially when trained staff are able to gather vital evidence that could be used to prosecute an attacker in a court of law.

“The IHA’s opposition to this legislation – and their reasoning that the mandate will cost too much money and too difficult to implement – demonstrates what the IHA’s true priorities and values really are, that they care more about profits than women’s lives, personal security, and justice.

“Instead of showing true leadership on an issue dealing with women’s safety, the IHA instead believes that the costs to treating rape victims is simply too high and not worth the industry’s support.

“The IHA’s corporate healthcare lobbyists who fought against this important bill should be held accountable.”

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