State & Local Government Policy, Business and Technology

Despite Federal Protections, Rape Victims Still Get Billed For Forensic Exams

Route Fifty: Six years ago, Erin was a newly minted graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, working three part-time jobs and adjusting to life as a non-student. She stopped in for a drink one night at a restaurant in Chicago’s Bucktown neighborhood, where she got into a conversation with a guy. The next thing she remembers clearly was awakening at home the next morning, aching, covered in bruises, with a swollen lip.

She believed she had been raped and went to the local police station to file a report. The police sent her to a hospital emergency room nearby, where a doctor did a medical forensic exam, checking her for injuries and taking evidence from her body and clothes to potentially use in a prosecution case. The exam took hours and made her even more miserable.

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