PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call
Bill White
Should advocates for extending child sex abuse statute of limitations accept half a loaf?
Is half a loaf better than none?
Not when it comes to this year’s emotional and contentious effort to offer justice to many victims of child sex abuse in Pennsylvania by extending or eliminating statutes of limitations, according to the Legislature’s most visible advocate for changing the law.
State Rep. Mark Rozzi, D-Berks, told me last week that he has consulted with survivors, advocacy groups and other House members over the question of whether the House should accept the watered down version of House Bill 1947 that passed the Senate in June.
He says the consensus is that they need to revert to the original House bill, or at least restore the language that gave victims of child sex abuse up to age 50 — including those blocked by the present statute — the retroactive right to sue their abusers.
One of those advocates, constitutional scholar Marci Hamilton, told me Rozzi is right to push hard for retroactivity, but she’s OK with incremental improvements if necessary.
“My view is that you get what you can each year, and you keep pushing,” she said. “If they pass an inadequate bill, they’ll have to reconsider the issue next year. It’s not going away.”
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