Legislation to guarantee rape victims treatment at Mississippi hospitals faces an uncertain future hours before its deadline. Meanwhile, survivors continue to be turned away in Mississippi hospitals.

Just two weeks ago, a child who was allegedly raped was turned away from an emergency room in central Mississippi, according to his mother. The child’s mother gave Mississippi Today permission to quote her without using her name. 

“They just said they don’t do it there,” she said. She then drove nearly an hour to a Jackson hospital where she was able to get a rape kit for her son.

Hospitals in Mississippi are not required to perform rape kits. 

Rep. Dana McLean, R-Columbus, is spearheading the effort to change that. McLean’s original bill died earlier in the session, but she revived the legislation in Senate Bill 2211, which faces several more legislative hurdles – including an 8 p.m. deadline Monday. 

Meeting that deadline would mean three House conferees and three Senate conferees on the conference report would need to reach an agreement. Conferees have yet to come to an agreement as of the time the story published, due partly to a concern about the impact on hospitals. 

“The needle we’re trying to thread is: everyone wants to do everything we can and need to for rape victims. I mean, who’s not for helping rape victims?” said Sen. Joey Fillingane, R-Sumrall, one of the conferees. “But, some of the language, at least at first blush, when the hospitals and their legal teams looked over them, basically said, ‘Wait a minute, y’all are trying to tell ER docs how to practice medicine inside the ER.’”

Several advocacy and law enforcement groups released a statement Sunday suggesting the Mississippi Hospital Association is “leading deceptive pushback” and attributed several claims to them that were “easily disproven.”

Mississippi Hospital Association CEO Richard Roberson refuted the press release, saying his organization has only ever expressed one concern and offered tweaks in language to make sure the bill conformed with federal law. He said MHA supports the legislation regardless of whether or not lawmakers heed his suggestions. 

“We are disappointed that anyone would accuse the Mississippi Hospital Association of working against this bill,” Roberson said. “MHA has met with stakeholders and offered language to strengthen the bill so that it conforms to federal law. MHA has been and is supportive of the legislation. Any characterization that MHA has not been supportive is false. MHA will continue to support victims of sexual assault – hard stop – and we will follow the law as the Legislature deems it to be.”  

Even if lawmakers file a conference report Monday night, the legislation will have a hard time passing the final hurdles of the session – due to political infighting. Since the two chambers haven’t reached an agreement for the annual budget, the session could end in a stalemate and force the governor to call a special session before July 1.

If the session ends without a budget, anything that hasn’t already been signed into law by the governor would need to be rushed through the legislative process, and it’s unlikely that lawmakers would have time to do that for all the conference reports not yet filed. 

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