By GottaLaff
Making victims pay for their own rape kits worked so well in Alaska, Texas just couldn't resist hopping on the bandwagon:
CNN reports that Texas hospitals are charging women who have been raped thousands of dollars for their rape kits that are collected by police as part of their investigations. According to the state officials, Texas’s crime victim compensation consistently has a surplus and could likely cover these expenses.
Via Think Progress, September 2008:
Nothing says "compassion" like further fraying the nerves of an already-traumatized woman.[C]harging sexual assault victims for their rape kits (which cost $300 to $1,200 at the time) is exactly what happened while she was mayor of Wasilla. In a budget-cutting move, Palin’s administration began charging rape victims for exams and the kits containing the medical supplies. (Her signature is on the budget.) USA Today reported:
It is not known how many rape victims in Wasilla were required to pay for some or all of the medical exams, but a legislative staffer who worked on the bill for [state legislator Eric] Croft said it happened. “It was more than a couple of cases, and it was standard practice in Wasilla,” Peggy Wilcox said, who now works for the Alaska Public Employees Association. “If you were raped in Wasilla, this was going to happen to you.”
The practice of charging rape victims got the attention of state lawmakers in 2000, who passed a bill to stop the practice. [...]
The Palin administration says it fired public safety director Walt Monegan because he went “to Washington, D.C., to seek funding for a new, multimillion-dollar sexual assault initiative the governor hadn't yet approved.”
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