@ Nicole, Are you sure the med exam is required? I didn’t get that from my reading of the statement and I’m not sure hospitals can legally force any treatment on a person unless they’re unconscious or something. My experience comes from Alaska, but I know in my sexual assault (attempted rape) I didn’t have to go to the hospital at all, but forensic evidence was collected.

1- In case the TAASA statement wasn’t clear, survivors who have a forensic exam done are REQUIRED to have a medical exam as well. It’s all well and good that the forensic exam is covered by local or State agencies (it darn well should be), but it seems duplicitous to then require that survivors pay (either through insurance or out of pocket) for the med. exam. Ultimately it’s just splitting hairs; if a survivor goes to the hospital to have a rape kit done, and isn’t able to leave unless she pays upwards of $300, can we say in good faith that the rape kit doesn’t cost her anything? It may not be a direct cost in the strictest sense, but in practice, it is.

I understand TAASA’s position that sexual assault survivors aren’t singled out with this requirement of having to pay for the (MANDATORY) med. exam following the collection of forensic evidence, but since when is ‘everyone else is subjected to this inherently unfair treatment’ a sufficient justification?

2-Local or state agencies only pay for the forensic exam if the survivor agrees (within 72 hours of the assault) to press charges. Given that the collected evidence can last significantly longer than 72 hours (weeks if not years I think), why put this extra pressure on the victim to make the decision to press charges? Final point- once the victim agrees to press charges and have the kit done, the investigation won’t stop until it runs it’s course. Even if the victim decides to drop charges for whatever reason, the case goes forward and she could be called as a witness, etc.

Their outreach is felt all over the city, including their anti-bullying talks in public schools.

All of Texas isn’t as backwards as W would have us seem, but no one can save us from the Goodhair Perry’s, but ourselves.

Fortunately, future voter registration models predict that if hispanics in south Texas register to vote as expected, Texas will be blue before too long. Thank goodness, or I would be advocating for the secession of Austin from TX.

We really need to be careful about regurgitating stories coming from other sources and try to generate our own leads.

That can be hard – especially if you don’t have someone in the vicinity, preferably someone who can verify information. It can be one of the few major drawbacks of blogging.

The quotes say “reimburse,” which means the woman must pay the up-to-$700 out of her pocket and then wait who knows how long to get paid back… which is really not much better. I don’t know about you, but I don’t generally have an extra $700 lying around that I can hand over and wait weeks for bureaucrats to get around to sending me a check…