Congresswoman Wants Rape Treated as PTSD

A bill introduced in Congress last week could make troops who are victims of rape eligible for treatment and disability benefits for post-traumatic stress disorder.

 

Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, wants the rules approved last year for a PTSD diagnosis to be amended to include instances of sexual trauma, according to H.R. 930.

 

"It's very difficult to prove sexual assault within the current system, which makes it just as difficult for veterans who have been victims to qualify for the treatments and benefits they need to recover," Pingree said in a statement. "It's a classic case of adding insult to injury."

 

If the rule change is adopted, men and women who were sexually assaulted in the military would be able to file a PTSD claim even without a paper trail of criminal reports and medical records.

 

Greg Jacob, policy director for Service Women's Action Network, said the reliance on the victim's narrative and secondary evidence is necessary because most rapes aren't reported at the time they occur. Some sexual assaults are filed as so-called "restricted" reports -- meaning the victim receives care but no investigation is conducted.

 

Pingree's bill calls for the VA to accept a mental health professional's diagnosis and a victim's written statement as sufficient proof of PTSD stemming from sexual trauma. The service connection to the PTSD may be rebutted by "clear and convincing evidence to the contrary," the bill states.

 

Jacob said the bill, which SWAN worked on with Pingree's office, is consistent with the less restrictive evidence for combat-related PTSD that requires only that the servicemember's claim be supported by the conditions and circumstances of the assignment. The change means a claimant no longer needs to come up with medical records or eyewitness statements corroborating the circumstance that caused the PTSD.

 

Evidence that would be acceptable with the amended sexual assault rule, Jacob said, would be "secondary evidence" of a rape. "So if I didn't report the rape, but if I e-mailed a friend [about it], wrote in my diary or called my mom … that would be considered evidence," he said.