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PolitiFact: 'Pants on Fire' for Texas Rep's Rape Kit Claim

Todd Wiseman, Texas Tribune

Do so-called rape kits in Texas include an internal surgical procedure similar to abortion? That’s what a Republican legislator recently  suggested in a House debate.

Rep. Jodie Laubenberg, R-Parker, the lead sponsor of the abortion-restricting bill that was defeated in the Texas Senate by Sen. Wendy Davis' filibuster and citizen protests, was explaining her refusal of a proposed amendment to lift the restrictions on abortions in cases of rape and incest. She described the kits used at hospitals after sexual assaults as akin to a dilation and curettage, a medical procedure that scrapes out the tissue lining a woman’s uterus.

Gardner Selby with the Austin American-Statesman's fact-checking project, PolitiFact Texas, came by to tell us what they found out. You can listen to our conversation in the player above and read the fact-check online.

Emily Donahue is a former grants writer for KUT. She previously served as news director and helped launch KUT’s news department in 2001.
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