Fla. Rape Victim Denied Contraception for Religious Reasons Allowed to Sue
A federal judge ruled on Monday that a woman who was raped five years ago, prescribed two anti-contraception pills, but prevented from taking one by a jail guard because of the guard's religious beliefs, has the right to sue Hillsborough County Sheriff over the incident.
The victim, identified only as R.W. in court reports, was raped on Jan. 27, 2007, and received treatment at the Tampa's Rape Crisis Center. After taking one pill, she waited 12 hours to ingest the other, as directed, but a jail guard named Michele Spinelli confiscated her second pill.
After initially reporting her rape, R.W. was placed under arrest by Tampa police who discovered that she was actually wanted for failing to pay restitution fees on a previous charge. It was while in custody that R.W. requested the second pill, but was denied.
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"Spinelli told the Plaintiff that she would not give R.W. the pill because it was against Spinelli's religious beliefs," the complaint positioned. R.W. did not become pregnant, but she still decided to sue Spinelli and Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee for violating the 14th Amendment, which guarantees equal protection under the law regardless of gender.
The sheriff's office initially moved to distance itself from the accusations, arguing that Spinelli's refusal to give the victim her pill was not representative of the sheriff's office as a whole, and it should not be sued along with the guard, Courthouse News Service reported on Monday.
U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Kovachevich has stated, however, that, "The single action of a final policy-maker can represent official government policy, even when the action is not meant to control later decisions."
Kovachevich further explained that sheriff Gee allowed Spinelli to be the only person of authority present at the jail when R.W. wanted to take the contraception pills, meaning that only she had the power to give guidance, supervision, or direction to the victim.
The written decision claimed that since R.W. had no one else at the jail to speak to about whether she had the right to take the pills or not, Spinelli served as a representative of Gee and the sheriff's policy, and her decision to deny the victim contraception coverage based on religious beliefs reflected on the entire office, thus making it responsible for Spinelli's misjudgment.
Spinelli's specific religious beliefs were not identified in the report.
"Gee, as the representative of the municipality, promulgated no policy on anti-conceptive medication and provided no guidance or supervision to Spinelli on the matter. Given that some entity must set policy for the government in each situation, plaintiff has rendered plausible the claim that Spinelli was designated the final policy-maker with respect to her decision to withhold anti-conceptive medication for religious reasons," Kovachevich clarified.
The judge clarified that the decision that allows R.W. to sue the Hillsborough County Sheriff office does not necessarily mean that she will be able to prove her claims and win the case.
"But at this early juncture, the Court must take the well-pleaded allegations of the complaint as true. It has done just that here – nothing more," according to the judge.
