Texas Charging Rape Victims For Rape Kits (VIDEO)

Via Think Progress comes this shocking CNN report that Texas is charging women thousands of dollars for the rape kits they use at the hospital. Essentially, since these rape kits are part of the police investigation, the police are charging these women for cooperating with authorities.

Watch the video report below and then visit Think Progress for more information.

Comments

[DeeDon]

Okay, everyone chill. Texas law has mandated law enforcement payment for sexual assault exams (rape kits) for many years. In fact, although Texas may be at the bottom of the list on a lot of things, when it comes to victims rights legislation we are generally ahead of the curve. My understanding is that the problem in this case was the victim presented for the exam but it was not associated with a police department's report and the hospital simply didn't know what to do with the bill (or for that matter the evidence, which is normally collected by the police), since both the bill and the evidence normally taken care of by the police department that orders the exam. We are working to correct the problem legislatively so that hospitals will know what to do to preserve the evidence and who takes responsibility for it in the very rare event that a victim presents at a hospital for a forensic rape exam (which is not the same thing as presenting for medical care after a rape) without being asked to do so by law enforcement, and that victim in fact chooses not to report it to any law enforcement agency...

[Mheald]

The Executive Director of the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault wrote an open letter to Texas sexual assault survivors regarding this issue on our blog.

http://taasa.org/blog/?p=1024

The letter talks about the numerous problems with the news story as well as the fact that this is not, as far as we at TAASA have witnessed, a recurring problem in Texas.

[clintinatx]

Well, as someone who has the utter misfortune of living in Texas, this inane act is just one more in a slew of many.

Here's a real gem made by a Texas oilman during his campaign running for governor!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OY3mWJ1Cd0Y

[annaban]

From Femisex.com
http://www.femisex.com/content/betchahaven%E2%80%99t-heard-about-a-new-federal-rule-rape-victims-took-effect-press-only-reports-rap

excerpt:
"Beginning in 2009, states will have to pay for Jane Doe rape kits to continue receiving funding under the federal Violence Against Women Act, which provides tax dollars for women's shelters and law enforcement training.

The FBI has recommended such an option since at least 1999!"

www.femisex.com reported on this new federal rule last Feb.
and as they predict, it got zero national media attention!

[kwijibo]

I wish the reporter had been able to find more than one example.

Although it's terrible that this has happened to anyone, there's no indication in this video how many women this has happened to.

The reporter has done us all a disservice by not giving us a number, even a range, of how many women this has happened to.

I'd ask that cooler heads prevail until we find out a little better what's going on and how widespread this is. Texas is a state of about 24 million people. I dare say that there is at least one person in every other state who's been billed for some aspect of evidence collection by police, each of which is an outrage in itself but certainly likely in a population of millions.

I'd also like to call attention to the Obama Administration's appalling proposal in March to require America's veterans to file their service-connected disability health checkups with their private health insurance.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/10/veterans.health.insurance/index.html

[MagicalPossibilities]

I don't even know where to start with this. I hope the ACLU gets all over this.

[kylennblack]

*kicks Texas*

[newleaf]

Conservatives don't want women to have access to birth control, reproductive free choice, or apparently, easy access to legal evidence of rape. Proof once again that the elitest conservative movement doesn't care about all American women, just the ones with money.

[Ares1]

This is riduculus, this is like blaming women or the victim for the rape just like in the Middle East. The state governments of Texas and Alaska are very anti-woman, this is red states for you.

[stanschurman]

So the effect will be that those from lower income groups will be discouraged from reporting rapes. In the enlightened philosophy of the Texas authorities, it serves them right for deciding to not be affluent.

[mwoman]

Charging women for rape kits? A huge step backwards.

[UncleJimbo]

How can Texas ask Women to pay for Rape Kits! That's an easy one The Rich White Men that run Texas are Pigs!

[HaloGuy]

I can easily see the conservative response to this:

"If you lefty puke libs would stop hating this country, you would see that Texas has a right to protect against false claims..." or they would throw in some drivel about it being her fault.

That this goes on should surprise me, but unfortunately it doesn't. What continually surprises me, however, is that people can read this situation and conclude that government should not be involved to solve people's problems.

[b93950]

The Texicans have corrupted the state so bad that the Mexicans don’t want them either...!

[tiktokklok]

Texas should secede; it is one state that definitely does not belong in the union.