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284 Sexual Assaults Reported Over Three Year Period At Veterans Affairs Facilities

06/10/11-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
The Service Women’s Action Network or SWAN has been doing a lot to try and stem the problem of rape and sexual assault in the military. Recently, the Government Accountability Office reported that “patients and staff have been raped and sexually assaulted while seeking care at Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities. Between January 2007 and July 2010, there were 284 reports of sexual assaults in these facilities. According to SWAN “67 were classified as rape, 185 as inappropriate touching, 13 as forced oral sex, 8 as forceful medical examinations and 11 as other types of sexual assaults involving patients against patients, patients against staff and staff against patients”

The findings came after the GAO did an investigation into VA safety polices in five of the VA’s hundred and fifty-three medical facilities.

Anu Bhagwati, former Marine Corps Captain and the Executive Director of SWAN stated:

“We are extremely outraged at the VA for allowing this to happen, but we are not all that surprised. SWAN has testified numerous times before Congress about the hostile and harassing environment that often exists at VA hospitals. We receive calls every week from veterans telling horror stories of VA visits where they have literally run a gauntlet of sexual harassment and mistreatment. The rates of sexual assault and harassment in the military are disturbing enough. However, to expose veterans to hostile behavior where they are being treated for conditions related to in-service sexual trauma is unconscionable.”

The House Committee on Veterans Affairs has introduced HR 2074 which would require the VA to track all sexual assaults and examine veterans that may pose a risk of committing sexual assault. The bill is suppose to go before the committee next week to examine the findings.

The SWAN press release notes:

Bhagwati testified last spring at the House Committee on Veterans Affairs Joint Hearing with Subcommittee on Health, “Healing the Wounds: Evaluating Military Sexual Trauma Issues,” about the concerns that face victims of sexual harassment and her unnerving experiences with VHA, saying: “Triggers of one’s assault or harassment are everywhere, from the prospect of running into your perpetrator, to being surrounded by male patients who routinely engage in sexual harassment of female patients, to being improperly treated by staff members who have no knowledge about the unique experience of sexual trauma in a military setting. The climate at VA hospitals is still largely unwelcoming to women, but for [Military Sexual Trauma] survivors, the experience of going to an appointment can be life-threatening.”