then some zealot, literally holding you prisoner, denies you medical care because of THEIR insane religious perversions!

I imagine I would have wanted to know that I wasn't going to be impregnated by a rapist and I would have loved to taken a shower! And seen my family!!

Did they ever even complete a rape kit???

Nope, instead in our bizarro world, this victim was thrown in jail to rot for two days with only the media and public outrage getting her out even now.

Meanwhile, her violent rapist goes free - with a nice 2 day start on outrunning "the law". He must have got a great big laugh watching on TV what happened to his victim.

Heads should roll. I hope she sues their asses off!

Stand up for your rights.

It's not just a danceable song.

That's horrendous. Somemone should jail whoever fucked this up.

Outrageous!! I don't understand when it became acceptable in this country to shirk your duties because of your "personal beliefs". There must be certain protocols and procedures for handling a rape victim, regardless of what other circumstances there are. To not follow these procedures because what *you* believe is not only reprehensible, but should be met with nothing less than dismissal.

Obviously this medical supervisor is more concerned with forcing his/her religious beliefs on others rather than being compassionate toward another human being... the latter, of course, being a true Christian value. What a hypocrite!

The fact that she was arrested on an outstanding warrant was unfortunate, but -- that happens when one is in the hands of the authorities and one has an outstanding warrant. One gets arrested. It was unfortunate in light of the reasons she came to the police, but what else could the police do?

The tragedy of this situation was the fact that she was denied EC while in jail. Why people think that women should be punished with pregnancy and denied the right to contraception -- I'll never understand. It certainly isn't because they value life or children.

How utterly ridiculous. Doctors who are not willing to provided wanted medical treatment should not be allowed to practice in public positions. Just think of how differently the reaction to this would have been if, say, the jailed young woman had needed a blood transfusion, but the doctor was Jehovah's Witness and refused to perform the transfusion, so it was done by someone else a day *late.*

This situation would have been reprehensible under any circumstances at any time. I hope the victim sues the appropriate parties until heads roll. The first thought that came to mind as I read this in Broadsheet was that we have the last 7 years of Bush et al to thank for creating a climate where dangerous, religious extremists in positions of political power feel that they are justified in forcing their religious convictions over the rights of others. Despicable. Let's go back to sanity and normalcy when religious zealots were appropriately reluctant about foisting their limited, rigid belief systems on others.

How is this doctor's beliefs any different than the muslim cab drivers that will not allow drinkers into their cabs. The right wing radio and press is all over those guys, but not on this doctor. What hypocrisy.

People with outstanding warrants still have access to the police’s help. If they didn’t I imagine rapists would search the web to find those who wouldn’t dare call the police because of a few old traffic tickets turned warrant (and maybe the rapists in Florida are doing those searches now). And fines that are paid come up as outstanding in old government databases all the time. There was no reason for this woman to be tossed in jail so quickly. I’d expect any officer sent to help a rape victim to put old fines and warrants on the back burner while he concentrated on violent predators – and I suppose they generally do since I’ve never heard a story like this one.

And the guy who didn’t give her that second morning after pill needs to be fired right now. That kind of behavior is completely indefensible. He’s a complete monster as far as I’m concerned.

That the jail worker (not a doctor) didn't give the woman the pill because she is not allowed to give prisoners medication without specific worker. The jail worker's attorney says the worker never discussed any religious beliefs. The jail worker has been placed on administrative leave. I don't know which side is telling it like it is in this case but I hope you will continue to follow it and report back to us.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/01/30/jailed.rapevictim.ap/index.html?eref=rss_education

lmwilker: it may be true that the "medical worker" isn't permitted to give medication without specific instructions. But surely she had a supervisor, surely there was a doctor somewhere that she could have contacted with questions? Indeed, one would expect that the jail protocol would require that there be someone in authority she could contact.

Here we have a prisoner in custody in need of medication in connection with a potentially life-threatening medical condition, and the worker couldn't be bothered to ask for instructions from her medical supervisor? That's totally inappropriate.

What would this woman have done if there was a prisoner who stated that she needed insulin, blood pressure medication, or gloucoma medication? Or for that matter, someone in the middle of a course of antibiotics???? Wouldn't this worker have freaking called somone about it at least?

If her motive wasn't religious, then she's totally incompetent at her job.

It takes a certain mindset to:

1) make a bunch of unpaid parking tickets more important than investigating an A felony and getting medical attention for a victim of violence, and

2) set up your jail health care system so that EC is not immediately and automatically available to every female inmate who requests it.

This is Tampa, folks - home of the piously cruel, the sociopathic believers, the bush voters.

I am quite sure that in this case the system worked precisely as it was designed to: a female who had sex was punished.

The only thing that will get through to them is a multi-BILLION dollar lawsuit that literally shuts the city down.

I wish I were a lawyer. I'd take the case for free.