HARRISBURG, PA — Earlier in the year, things were looking promising for adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse to finally get a shot at justice—something they’ve been waiting on for decades. With another deadline missed in the state capital, however, they’ll have to keep waiting until at least 2024. 

“We were having really exciting conversations at the beginning of the year,” said Amy Mathieu, a Pittsburgh-based attorney with several clients eagerly awaiting this amendment’s adoption. “But when you have to tell people that there’s no legal options for them to take right now, those are the hardest conversations to have.”

The PA legislature has been trying for years to pass a constitutional amendment that would create a two-year window for abuse survivors to revive outdated claims. Despite broad bipartisan support for this bill, politics got in the way this year.

Silence is not golden

According to the United States Department of Justice, around 86 percent of all childhood sexual abuse goes unreported altogether. Those who do come forward don’t do so, on average, until the age of 52.

Child USA—a think tank that supports reforming statutes of limitation for abuse cases—reported in 2020 that young children who were abused most severely, tend to wait the longest to disclose their history of abuse.

“People do wait a very long amount of time before they’re able to come forward,” said Randi Bannon, executive director at Victims Intervention Program (VIP) in Wayne and Pike counties, “for lots of reasons, mainly safety.”

Despite this data, Pennsylvania has a statute of limitations preventing survivors over the age of 55 from filing claims. The cutoff used to be 30 years until a 2019 reform bill. To advocates’ dismay, that bill was written in such a way that survivors who were already older than 30 at the time of its passing were, and are, still considered outside the statute of limitations.

Creating a two-year window could potentially help thousands seek justice. Mathieu said that some are waiting to file charges against individuals, while others would use this window to confront the institutions that systemically covered up the abuse they suffered.

A constitutional pathway

Constitutional amendments have different, more complex requirements than regular legislation. After getting passed through two consecutive sessions in the General Assembly, the matter is brought to voters’ ballots.

To make things more complicated, the PA Department of State is also required to advertise the proposal with adequate time before Election Day. The PA Department of State recently confirmed with newspaper Spotlight PA that it’s “too late to draft, approve, and publish the legally required notices to hold a constitutional referendum this year.”

Pennsylvania’s Democratic lawmakers are blaming state Senate Republicans for this delay—pointing to their attempt to bundle the survivors’ amendment in with other partisan constitutional amendment proposals. One would have instituted stricter voter ID requirements; the other would have restricted a governor’s regulatory power.

Republicans, meanwhile, said that Democrats were being unreasonable by preventing commonwealth residents from voting on these issues.

“There is no valid justification for preventing voters from having a direct voice on voter identification, regulation reform and opening the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse survivors through constitutional questions,” Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman said in a statement earlier this year.

Gov. Josh Shapiro—who as PA’s Attorney General led a two-year grand jury investigation into child sex abuse committed by priests from six Catholic dioceses throughout the state—would like to sign a regular piece of legislation instead of a constitutional amendment, allowing for this two-year window, according to statements from his spokespeople. Such a bill has passed in the state House. However, GOP state senators will not consider it, arguing that an amendment is the only constitutional path for such a measure.

A ticking clock

Survivors could be waiting now until 2024, if both chambers reach an agreement in time to get the referendum on voters’ ballots in next year’s primary or general elections. If not next year, however, the constitutional amendment won’t have another chance until 2027.

Mathieu said that getting their hopes up year after year, just to be repeatedly disappointed is hindering survivors’ hopes of finding closure.

“I’m sure it’s taking a toll on their mental health,” she said. “These are real people—not pieces of data, not pawns for politics—sitting at home and waiting for their elected officials to treat them like a priority. As these survivors get older, some of them are running out of time.”