A Colorado panel advanced legislation Tuesday to increase the amount of prescription drugs hospitals can supply to sexual assault victims to prevent sexually transmitted infections.

Under current law, hospitals can only provide a 72-hour supply of prescription drugs to any emergency room patient. If enacted, House Bill 1309 would allow hospitals to offer a seven-day supply of STI-preventing drugs to victims of sexual assault.

“This is a simple change,” said bill sponsor Rep. Meg Froelich, D-Greenwood Village. “It is another in a series of bills. We’re trying to accomplish a Sexual Assault Survivors Bill of Rights.”

The House Public and Behavioral Health Committee unanimously approved the bill Tuesday, sending it to the full House for consideration. Other bills regarding sexual assault this session include adding the word “consent” to Colorado’s sexual assault law and providing sex workers immunity from arrest when they report violent crimes including sexual assault.

The Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault reported that 23.8% of women in Colorado have experienced sexual violence, compared to 18.3% nationally. A sexual assault occurs in the U.S. every 68 seconds, according to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network.

While hospitals can currently provide prescriptions for seven-days’ worth of STI-preventing drugs, the victims are forced to front the costs and pick up the prescriptions themselves – a process advocates say can be extremely difficult and upsetting.

“Sexual assault is a terrible crime. The impact upon the assaulted person is traumatizing,” said Barb Cardell with Colorado Organizations Responding to AIDS. “This bill would give survivors a cushion, a full week to be able to process their emotions, while also ensuring they have access to preventative medications.”

Cardell said her friend’s daughter was sexually assaulted a few years ago and she filled the prescriptions for them so the mother and daughter could stay home. Cardell said it took her 16 hours to pick up the prescription, find a pharmacy that supplied the medication and get it authorized through the insurance company. 

The bill would also align with new recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Elizabeth Newman with the Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault.

Previously, the CDC recommended one-time doses of antibiotics following a sexual assault, but it now suggests a seven-day regimen. Newman said this change resulted from the emergence of an antibiotic-resistant strain of gonorrhea.

“(The current system) adds another stop on their way after this traumatic experience,” Newman said. “It also makes it more difficult to access the STI prophylaxis which is, of course, against the interest of public health.”

The bill received no opposition from lawmakers or witnesses on Tuesday. It is also backed by Denver Health, the Kaiser Foundation and the Colorado Hospital Association.