HARRISBURG — A bill to ensure that rape victims have access to emergency contraception when they are treated in hospitals stalled in the state House on Wednesday after a heated debate.

The House voted 109-86 to push back consideration of the bill until later in October despite arguments by supporters that the matter has been kicked around long enough.

"Almost every person in this room, based on my private conversations, if it was their child, if it was their wife or mother, they'd want them to have access to this," said the prime sponsor, Rep. Daylin Leach, D-Montgomery.

Opposition does not break down neatly along party lines, with Democrats in heavily Catholic areas siding with anti-abortion Republicans. Some consider the pill tantamount to abortion, but the manufacturer says it does not affect an existing pregnancy.

The bill would require hospitals to tell sexual assault victims that they can provide emergency contraception in the form of the Plan B pill.

Plan B, commonly called the morning-after pill, is a high dose of the most common ingredient in regular birth-control pills. It significantly lowers the risk of pregnancy if taken within 72 hours.

An amendment sponsored by Rep. Chris Ross, R-Chester, would let hospitals meet that requirement by hiring a contractor. It also would allow doctors who are morally opposed to the pill to refrain from providing it as long as their hospital made it otherwise available.

Rep. Louise Williams Bishop, D-Philadelphia, urged her colleagues to act, as some other states have done.

"I think we should stop being cowards and stand up and put our vote up on behalf of emergency medical help, contraceptives that should be available to every woman in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania," she said.

Even if hospitals are not forced to offer Plan B, the drug will be widely available over-the-counter in drug stores, said Rep. John Maher, R-Allegheny.

"Rest assured that anyone 18 or older can acquire Plan B at any, just about any, pharmacy in this state just by walking up to the counter and asking for it," Maher said.

But rape victims may not be in a position to shop for the pill, Rep. Josh Shapiro, D-Montgomery, countered.

"A rape victim who has been battered and beaten and had their legs broken cannot walk up to the counter," Shapiro said. "A 16-year-old girl cannot walk up to the counter, because she requires a prescription."