First you get raped, then you have to pay for the rape kit? What?

Chalk this one up to weird US politics, or the pay-for-yourself culture of healthcare, but it is truly shocking. If you get raped in some US states, you may end up having to pay all or part of the medical costs of using a rape kit to gather evidence, reports US News.

In North Caroline, for example, rape kits cost $1,600, but a state fund capped payouts for victims at $1,000, until the scandal was exposed by local reporters. Note: this is not the medical costs from any injury sustained, but the gathering of evidence, that rape victims are being charged for.

“It’s been a problem for a long time,” says Ilse Knecht, deputy director of public policy at the National Center for Victims of Crime. “We’ve heard so many stories of victims paying for their exams, or not being able to and then creditors coming after them.”

Unbelievable.

(Via Feminist Law Professors and Jezebel)