News[JURIST] Reversing a ruling [JURIST report] made by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health [official website], Governor Mitt Romney [official website] said Thursday that even private hospitals must provide emergency contraception pills to rape victims. The DPH had said that church-run and other private hospitals could opt out of a new law requiring them to provide the pills [text]. Romney vetoed the law [JURIST report] in July, but the state legislature voted to override it [JURIST report]. Romney said his reversal of the DPH comes in response to legal advice that the new law trumps a prior one stating that private hospitals cannot be forced to provide abortions or contraception. The Boston Globe has more.
