Page 21 - Rape Kits News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Could be on the run possibly raping others. how frustrated are you that thousands of rape kits are still unprocessed? >> i'm very frustrated. >> reporter: she was a member of the sexual assault survivor's task force was raped at knifepoint back in 1985. she was just 13. her own rape kit set untested on a shelf for more than 20 years. by the time her attacker was identified, the statute of limitations had run out and the man was already in prison. he had been caught after raping two other women while lavinia's kit was still on the shelf. >> this is not an easy task. >> reporter: texas state rep...

A shelf, it represents a survivor's story, it represents an individual, a family who has been impacted by this, it represents women who are waiting for justice. and so we know that there is still more work to do. >> reporter: she says the state is making it a priority and has approved $50 million to help test these kits. but with thousands of rape kits still on the shelf, that leaves a lot of women wondering who raped them and a lot of rapists on the street. >> that is a big reason why many women do not report that they have been raped because they don't think that their case will be prosecute...

Test these kits. but with thousands of rape kits still on the shelf, that leaves a lot of women wondering who raped them and a lot of rapists on the street. >> that's the big reason why many reason do not report that they have been raped because they don't think that their case is going to be prosecuted. >> reporter: beyond the backlog, the new texas law banning abortions after six weeks even in the case of rape and incest infuriated lavinia. >> that makes absolutely no sense at all. no sense at all. >> because you may not even know you're pregnant at six weeks. >> exactly. we've lost our cont...

Governor greg abbott can deliver on his recent promise to eliminate all rapists from the streets of texas. >> how can the governor of texas eliminate all rapists from the state when the governor hasn't even been able to eliminate the backlog of rape kits? >> exactly. that's the million-dollar question. when you say things like that, it's like it's outlandish to say things in that manner. >> house bill 8 is now law. >> reporter: when texas governor, greg abbott, signed into law the masters act in 2019, lavinia, a survivor of rape, was there. the act was designed to audit untested rape kits acro...

>> it's boxing, not just a box, sitting on a shelf. it represents a survivor's story, it represents an individual a family who has been impacted by this. it represents women who are waiting for justice. and so, we know that there's still more work to do. >> reporter: neave says the state has approved $50 million to help test these kits but with thousands of rape kits still on the shelf, that leaves a lot of women wondering who raped them? and a lot of rapists on the street. >> that's a big reason why many women do not report that they have been raped because they don't think that their case is...