A rapist usually is not a shadowed, unrecognizable figure, but rather, in most cases, a person his victim knows and may love. The Family Violence Prevention Fund reports that 76 percent of rape victims 18 and over knew their attacker. Often he was a current or former spouse, a partner, a date.

Erin Varner is medical advocate at Crisis Center North, a nonprofit counseling and education center serving victims of domestic violence in the northern communities of Allegheny County (evarner@crisiscenternorth.org).

As a victims' advocate for a domestic-violence agency, I am exposed daily to cases that state legislators and community members never hear or read about. A woman victimized by her boyfriend and his buddies after going on a drug binge. A teenage girl, on her first date, raped on a couch at a party. A woman forced to engage in "makeup sex" after her husband beat her.

Rape is a brutal demonstration of one's power and control over another person. It is frequently employed as a form of domestic abuse. As advocates, community members or legislators, we have an ethical, legal and moral obligation to help rape victims heal by using all of the medical, psychological and legal tools we have to restore their health and dignity.

When victims of any other crimes are injured, they receive the highest standard of care available when brought into a hospital. Gun shot, stabbing and choking wounds are surgically repaired, bandaged and the patient is provided with follow-up care. Victims of rape are not guaranteed the highest standard of care.

When entering a hospital for treatment, rape victims not only must deal with the physical trauma of their injuries, they also must battle the social stigma and personal moral judgments of those who care for them. A rape victim should clearly and compassionately be presented with choices as to whether they want to press charges, allow a rape kit investigation to be performed, speak with a victim's advocate or take drugs to prevent sexually transmitted infections.

Rape victims also should be offered unbiased factual information regarding the use and availability of emergency contraception. Unfortunately the option to take emergency contraception is not always presented, which means the issue of an unwanted pregnancy resulting from this violent crime may or may not be addressed.

A study done in 2006 by the ACLU Clara Bell Reproductive Freedom Project showed that only 47 percent of Pennsylvania hospitals offer emergency contraception to rape victims. This means that in the majority of Pennsylvania hospitals, women are not being told that emergency contraception might allow them to avoid the devastating consequence of a pregnancy resulting from rape.

Every victim has a right to the same standard of care when seeking treatment after a rape, a right that would be ensured by House Bill 288. This compassionate piece of legislation would mandate that a rape victim be informed of the availability of emergency contraception in an objective manner by a medical professional. Victims have a right to make informed medical decisions for themselves, based on their own situations, beliefs and complete information about their options.

At the moment, more than half of Pennsylvania hospitals deny women the right to choose emergency contraception even though many women who have been raped do not know that it is available.

As residents of a metropolitan area, we may take for granted that we have easy access to a number of different hospitals. But even in cities, some hospitals do not tell rape victims about emergency contraception and, even in those that do, some medical professionals choose to withhold information about emergency contraception due to their personal moral convictions. And even with all of our choices as city residents, a woman rendered unconscious as a result of an attack is unable to choose which hospital she is taken to.

This problem is all the more prevalent in rural areas, where the only hospital accessible to a rape victim might choose to keep her in the dark about the availability of emergency contraception.

Shouldn't all rape victims be presented with the same options and information so they can make informed decisions? Shouldn't all rape victims have the opportunity to make decisions about their own medical treatment? How do we ethically deny some women the care that others receive?

One in five women will become a victim of rape. If tomorrow someone you love becomes a part of this statistic, wouldn't you want to know that she will be told about all of her medical options?