(The Center Square) – Over-the-counter “rape kits” are still illegal in Washington after a federal judge upheld the state’s ban on Tuesday, but the company responsible says this isn’t over yet.
Leda Health issued a news release following the U.S. District Court’s decision, noting its intention to appeal the ban at a higher level. The Pennsylvania-based company initially sued the state in June after the Legislature banned its over-the-counter sexual assault test kits last year.
State officials concluded that the kits create false hope for victims and issues for investigators; however, Madison Campbell, Leda Health’s chief executive officer, argues otherwise. She called Tuesday’s decision another hostile approach toward survivors and their recovery.
“Denying survivors the right to take their bodies back into their own hands after a traumatic event such as an assault not only denies them of their fundamental rights,” wrote Campbell, who’s also a survivor, in the news release, “but also undermines the integrity of the justice system.”
Attorney General Bob Ferguson motioned to dismiss Leda Health’s initial lawsuit, which was granted Tuesday. In a news release following the decision, his office stated that “Leda Health’s over-the-counter rape kits gather evidence that is rarely, if ever, admissible in court.”
While the kits face challenges to being admissible in court, several cases have upheld self-collected evidence. According to a 2022 KUOW article, one individual found justice after using a Q-tip to “clean up” at home after an assault, leading to the conviction of the rapist.
“The law violates the First Amendment by restricting the truthful communication of the options available to survivors for using legal items at home to self-collect evidence of their assault,” according to Leda Health’s news release. “This case raises important questions about the future of survivor-centered solutions and the boundaries of governmental regulation.”
Campbell argued against the AGO’s claims and told The Center Square that the courts never deemed her company’s kits inadmissible. While they haven’t been used as evidence in a high-profile case, they are used in pre-trial hearings, where many similar cases end in plea deals.
She said that Leda Health was operating in Washington for less than two months before the state threatened to shut her down; it all started after more than 300 University of Washington sorority members unanimously decided to use her kits and other products.
“Washington took those resources away, including emergency contraceptives,” she said, “and the attorney general asked us to take that away.”
With abortion and other healthcare decisions sitting atop some legislators’ priorities, Campbell questioned why the state is limiting people’s bodily autonomy “after the worst incident of their life.”
Leda Health is also suing New York and Pennsylvania over cease-and-desist letters sent by those states; however, unlike in Washington, Campbell said those lawsuits reached a trial, and her company was even granted an evidentiary hearing to cross-examine the state.
Leda Health is awaiting a decision from the judge for those cases, but Campbell is optimistic.
She said her company requested an evidentiary hearing in Washington to present its case but was denied, so they plan to appeal the decision to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals instead.
Campbell wants to cross-examine the legislators and experts to hold Washington accountable for limiting alternatives to individuals who may be afraid to come out after an assault.
“They need to answer the questions to the public: have their kits ever been inadmissible? Has a survivor ever asked for these resources and not been able to get them?,” Campbell asked, listing off questions. “How many people were promised [the state’s] kits would end up in a conviction and then didn’t?”
The Center Square contacted the AGO, asking how often the state’s kits are deemed inadmissible and whether the courts had rejected any of Leda Health’s, but did not receive a response.
Leda Health has 30 days to appeal the U.S. District Court’s decision. Campbell said if that appeal ends the same as the last, she’ll take it to the U.S. Supreme Court.
