Last October, members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives introduced House Resolution 344 to demand the release of files against convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, touting Pennsylvania as “a nationwide leader in taking a firm stance against sexual abuse and assault.”
They’re not wrong. With sexual violence scandals saturating the news cycle, policymakers across the political spectrum have been quick to denounce offenders.
But where Pennsylvania falls short is its support for victims of these heinous crimes: the survivors who make justice possible by speaking up, filing reports and testifying in court.
It has been six years since the state increased its minuscule budget for rape crisis centers — the organizations that respond to sexual offenses and enable survivors to navigate the criminal justice system with dignity.
Without appropriate funding for these centers, the burden of public safety and accountability unjustly falls on survivors. I know because I’ve lived it.
The same day the House called for the Epstein files, I stood on the steps of Pittsburgh’s City-County building in front of a dozen cameras to tell my sexual assault story and beg lawmakers to fund Pennsylvania’s rape crisis centers. These organizations were forced to lay off staff and cut services because of last fiscal year’s budget impasse — a blow from which centers haven’t yet recovered.
I shared excruciating personal details of my physical violation because I thought they’d give a damn if they knew that my assaulter — a serial predator — was sentenced to 25 years in prison because a rape crisis center facilitated the process.
I revealed that I was eight months pregnant when I needed a rape crisis center advocate to help me testify in court. I thought that if lawmakers could envision me in tears on the stand, cradling my unborn daughter, they’d find the funds.
But they haven’t. As the state’s June 30 deadline to pass this year’s budget approaches, the funds sexual assault advocates have pleaded for remain flat. It is an extraordinary injustice that survivors make personal sacrifices to protect others from the harm we endured, and yet our leaders leave us to suffer the consequences on our own.
If our sorrow isn’t enough to move them, maybe their shame will be.
To demand accountability from sexual crime perpetrators while ignoring their victims’ direct pleas for help is to ask more of survivors than our governing bodies are willing to give themselves. It is another layer of survivors’ objectification. And it’s time we recognize it for what it is.
Our lawmakers demand the details of Epstein’s crimes, but they won’t fund the organizations that serve sex trafficking survivors.
Our lawmakers denounce AI deepfake pornography, but they won’t fund the centers survivors call when their image is violated.
Let’s be real. I want our Legislature to stay on the necks of criminals. And I genuinely appreciate their words of support for survivors.
But ultimately, I don’t care if they think I’m brave. I care about whether the check clears. Because when it doesn’t, survivors suffer.
Throughout the last year, survivors in Pennsylvania have called helplines that go unanswered. They’ve endured forensic medical exams alone. They’ve testified in front of their assaulters without support.
Now, survivors like me are placed in the re-traumatizing position of pleading our cases to state leaders in Harrisburg after already doing so in court.
Tomorrow, survivors, advocates and rape crisis center leaders will rally at the Capitol to demand a funding increase that is proportionate to the needs of survivors. We’re asking our state senators to publicly support increasing funds for rape crisis centers, and we hope Pennsylvanians will call their elected officials to do the same.
Survivors of sexual violence already do our part to hold criminals accountable. It’s time for the Pennsylvania Legislature to do theirs.