Update: Exemption included in new Pennsylvania law on Plan B *for now*

Good reporting from the Philadelphia Inquirer:

Hospitals in Pennsylvania must provide women who have been raped or sexually assaulted with emergency contraception, according to state regulations approved yesterday.

The rules, adopted by the Independent Regulatory Review Commission, are the first statewide for how hospitals must deal with emergency contraception, long a touchy subject in Pennsylvania and other states.

But supporters of emergency contraception said yesterday that the regulations gave hospitals an easy out by allowing them to apply for an exemption due to religious or moral objections. "We certainly think more work needs to be done to make sure that every victim of rape is given the complete care that she should get as a matter of course," said Larry Frankel, legislative director for the American Civil Liberties Union in Pennsylvania. "It should not matter which hospital she goes to, because she doesn't get to choose that. There are better ways of accommodating those with religious objections."

A state law that would prohibit such exemptions is pending.