Louisiana’s New Bill of Rights for Sexual Assault Survivors

Beggining today, August 1st, 2024, Louisiana enacts Act No. 669, also known as the Sexual Assault Survivor's Bill of Rights. This act ensures safety measures for people who are survivors of any sexually oriented crime. This bill was written and introduced to the legislature by the State Senator for District 12, Beth Mizell from Franklinton, Louisiana.

This bill was filled in feburary and was inroduced into the State Senate on March 11th of this year, and on April 29th the Senate passed the bill by a vote of 37 yes to zero no votes. The bill was sent to the State House after passing the Senate where it was amended before it was held up for vote on May 22nd, where the House voted the bill in with 97 votes in favor against zero votes in opposition. On June 18th Gov. Jeff Landry signed the bill into law, which goes into effect today.

Beggining today all liscensed hospitals and healthcare providers in the state must allow a survivor of sexual assault to decide whether or not the crime commited against them will be reported to law enforcement, and must provide medical care whether the survior wishes to report the crime or not. This does not apply though to any survivors under the age of 18 or anyone who is determined to be physically or mentally incapbable of making a decision to report the crim, now under this bill the healthcare provider is legally required to immediately report the assault to the appropriate agency.

All survivors of sexual assault are now legally provided the right to be treated and looked over by medical officials. If the survivor consents the examination provided by a healthcare worker includes things like, an examination of physical trauma, a patient interview, collection fo evidence, photographic documentation, collection of medical any medical specimen, if determined necesary by the medical professional an alcohol or drug toxicology screening, medication like emergency contraception and HIV/STI prophylaxis.

Hospitals and healthcare providers are barred from directly billing a survivor for the servieces provided during their examination. Instead of the billing the survivor the medical provider is to submit a claim for payment to the Crim Victim Reparations Board for reimbursment. Any examination done for collection of forensic data shall in no way be billed to the survivor. Every hospital is now required to provide a pamphlet which explains the billing process for services provided to survivors.

Any hospitals or healthcare providers who fail to comply with the Sexual Assault Survivor's Bill of Rights will find themselves subject to denial, suspension, or revocation of their license.