For rape victims across America, the horror of their assault is made worse by the hospital bills that keep coming in the months after their attack. We set out to shine a light on this injustice and connect survivors with a victim advocate who can help.

We started by rewriting real survivors’ medical bills with the true story of their sexual assault to communicate that they were, in essence, being charged for their rape. We then used these repurposed hospital bills to invite millions of other rape survivors to share their own stories in the same way through RapeTax.com, a digital platform with a response mechanism created for the project.

We also transformed bills as a call-to-action, empowering survivors to mobilize others with the same experience, and drive them to the National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA), who can help free them from this financial burden.

To raise awareness of this injustice, we repurposed rape victims’ hospital bills, rewriting them to tell the true story of a sexual assault. The designs used each field of the bill to tell these stories, and paired each violating and traumatic act with a price tag. The total added up to approximately $1000—the average price that survivors pay for the medical expenses related to their rape. 

In recognition of Sexual Assault Awareness Month in the US, the Rape Tax campaign was launched April 1st. We adapted the transformed bills into press releases, ran them as print ads in selected newspapers, hung them as posters around NYC, and featured them on digital billboards in Times Square—all to drive victims to RapeTax.com. Then, using the response mechanism of our site, we invited survivors to transform their sexual assault accounts into bills, revealing the devastating cost they have already paid.

In the first week after launching The Rape Tax, hundreds of rape survivors created or shared bills with stories of sexual assault on the site. We featured the campaign on multiple digital billboards in Times Square, reaching an estimated 415,000 passersby, and achieving an estimated 1.5 million impressions.

The National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA) had a 60% increase in call volume and a 40% increase in site traffic. We project, as a result of our campaign, over a million dollars will be waived or returned by the end of the year.

We empowered rape survivors to be advocates for change. They transformed hospital bills into defiant statements about the price they’ve already paid for their sexual assault. At the same time, they educated other victims about financial resources they didn’t know existed, so they can put the focus back where it belongs: on healing.

In the US, rape victims who visit the hospital are forced to pay about $1000 in hospital bills. To shine a light on this injustice, we created a campaign with a response mechanism where rape survivors could share their stories of sexual assault and transform them into customized bills. These bills showed, in essence, they were charged for being raped.

We provided a digital platform for rape survivors to raise their collective voices to end this injustice, and to empower victims to contact the National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA), who can help free them from this financial burden.

According to research, victims of sexual trauma are more likely to open up online than in person because they can remain less exposed. So, we built a digital platform with a response mechanism where rape survivors could safely share their stories, turn them into customized bills, and express the hidden costs of being a rape victim — an average $1000 for related medical treatment.   

At RapeTax.com, we created an online gallery of customized bills, created by rape victims, for other viewers to read and share on their behalf. The bills were turned into print ads, posters, online videos, social posts, and even billboards in Times Square, so we could mobilize even more survivors of sexual assault to get assistance through the National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA).

Survivors of sexual assault, once liberated from this cruel financial injustice, can focus their attention on recovering their health and rebuilding their lives.

Rape is a vicious crime—it can also be expensive. In the US, 9 out of 10 victims are forced to pay an average $1,000 in hospital bills after an attack. After visiting the hospital, a majority of rape victims will incur charges in the months after an assault, including testing for STD and pregnancy, and prescriptions for antibiotics, HIV prevention, and emergency contraception. 

Sexual Assault Awareness Month in the US was the perfect time to raise awareness about this remarkable injustice. We wanted to empower rape survivors to raise their voices—to expose the financial burden that they must endure on top of the emotional and mental burden they suffer in the aftermath of sexual assault. At the same time, we set out to connect rape victims across the nation, who received an unjust hospital bill, to the National Organization for Victim Assistance to get the help they deserve.