Measures on sexual assault care advance
News Releases are provided by the LRC Public Information Office. All photos are attributed to LRC Staff.
Measures on sexual assault care advance February 13, 2025
Rep. Rebecca Raymer, R-Morgantown, speaks on House Bill 219 and House Concurrent Resolution 20 before the House Health Services Committee on Thursday. HB 219 would require emergency medical providers to receive sexual assault response training. HCR 20 would direct the Legislative Research Commission to study access to sexual assault nurse examiners in the commonwealth. A high-resolution photo can be found here.
FRANKFORT — Rep. Rebecca Raymer, R-Morgantown, hopes two pieces of legislation she’s sponsoring would help Kentuckians access better care after a sexual assault.
The House Health Services Committee approved House Bill 219 and House Concurrent Resolution 20 on Thursday.
HB 219 would require emergency medical providers to receive sexual assault emergency response training, and HCR 20 would direct the Legislative Research Commission (LRC) to study access to sexual assault nurse examiners (SANE) in the commonwealth.
The training would be conducted by the state’s Sexual Assault Response Team Advisory Committee.
Raymer said she started working on the legislation after learning about gaps in coverage for sexual assault patients in emergency rooms across Kentucky.
“While that is a big problem that we need to address, and I think it’s a multi-faceted problem, it requires some research and some data for us to know how to correctly address it,” Raymer said.
Rep. Mary Lou Marzian, D-Louisville, asked Raymer if she’s spoken to any of the SANE nurses about the bill.
Raymer said she has not reached out to the nurses directly, but the Kentucky Hospital Association and the Kentucky Medical Association did not have an issue with the legislation.
HB 219 would not mandate a certificate-type program, only training, Raymer added.
“This would just allow patients to be referred to the resources that they need in the emergency department, and we would protect the evidence and also ensure the patients aren’t being sent away to another facility?” Committee Chair Rep. Kimberly Poore Moser, R-Taylor Mill, asked.
Raymer said, “yes.”
Ultimately, HB 219 would be “temporary fix” for a larger problem, Raymer said. That’s where HCR 20 comes in.
“What we really want is we want those sexual assault nurse examiners that have that training in these hospitals,” Raymer said. “We want them to be there. When our citizens, at possibly one of the most vulnerable times in their life, walk into an ER, they need to have the correct treatment by the correct individual.”
The LRC report under HCR 20 would hopefully give the legislature the information it needs to draft legislation to fix the sexual assault care issues at Kentucky hospitals, Raymer said.
“It directs LRC to conduct a study looking at where we have gaps in coverage. Why do we have gaps? Try to find out what hospitals are doing when there isn’t a sexual assault nurse examiner on staff,” Raymer said.
If approved, LRC would submit the report by December 2025.
Moser said the Sexual Assault Advisory Committee has been asking for more SANE nurses for years.
“I think this would support that,” Moser added. “We will be able to actually see the data, so I think that’s really important.”
HB 219 and HCR 20 are now before the full House for consideration.
News Releases are provided by the LRC Public Information Office. All photos are attributed to LRC Staff.
https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/publicservices/pio/release.html#HB219021325
