Bill: Counties To Pay For All Rape Exams

By Victoria Wicks
The Senate Health and Human Services Committee gave a do-pass recommendation to a bill that makes counties responsible for medical examinations of sexual assault victims, regardless if the victim wishes to prosecute.
House Bill 1169 takes out language from previous law that said counties pay for examinations “to gather information or evidence about the alleged crime.”
In this proposal, those exact words have been stricken.
Witnesses testified that victims have had to decide at the time of the examination whether to proceed with a criminal case if the county was to be responsible for the bill.
Senator Deb Soholt says the changes likely reflect the intent behind the law.
“I think at a time when women are probably at their most vulnerable state, to then also have to make this decision about, ‘Am I going to press charges on a crime when we’re needing to do this rape kit,’ I’m sure that was not what the original crafters of this statute were thinking, that both of those decisions would have to be made at the same time,” Soholt says.
Although testimony referred to female victims, the language in the bill is gender-neutral.
Proponents say the prosecutor has access to the evidence if the victim decides to proceed. There were no opponents to the bill, and the committee voted unanimously to pass it and put it on the consent calendar for the full Senate.