§ 23-5C-2 Health care facility prohibited from requiring victim to report rape or sexual assault to law enforcement in order to receive treatment--Release of sexual assault kit to law enforcement--Confidentiality.

SD Codified L § 23-5C-2 (2019) (N/A)

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23-5C-2. Health care facility prohibited from requiring victim to report rape or sexual assault to law enforcement in order to receive treatment--Release of sexual assault kit to law enforcement--Confidentiality. A health care facility examining or treating a victim of rape or sexual assault shall give the victim, or a victim or witness assistant, the option of reporting the rape or sexual assault to an appropriate law enforcement agency. A health care facility may not require the victim to report the rape or sexual assault in order to receive an examination or treatment for the rape or sexual assault.

A health care facility that examines or treats a victim of rape or sexual assault with a sexual assault kit shall release the sexual assault kit to the investigating law enforcement agency, if known, or the law enforcement agency of the jurisdiction where the examination or treatment occurs in accordance with § 23-5C-3. The health care facility shall inform the victim that the sexual assault kit will be preserved by law enforcement for a period of at least one year from the date of the examination or treatment before it is destroyed. Any examination or treatment under this section shall include the preservation of confidentiality of any test, procedure, or sample that may serve as evidence in the prosecution for the rape or sexual assault.

Source: SL 2016, ch 130, § 2; SL 2019, ch 112, § 1.

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§ 23-5C-3 Code number affixed to sexual assault kit--No other identification--Information to victim--Transfer of kit to law enforcement.