HARRISBURG — Gov. Josh Shapiro took aim at the Republicans who control the Pennsylvania Senate on Tuesday, urging them to open a path for older survivors of childhood sexual abuse to bring lawsuits and “stop tying justice to … pet political projects.”
For decades, survivors have urged the state to open a temporary window so those abused can file lawsuits even though the statute of limitations has passed. They view creating a path for victims in older cases to sue their abusers as a crucial step for accountability.
In recent legislative sessions, Republican leaders in the state Senate have refused to advance a proposed constitutional amendment on the issue unless it is tied to an expanded voter ID measure.
“Leader [Matt] Bradford has put a clean bill on the House floor six different times over the last three years, and it has passed each time. But I got to say it, I have to call it out — Senate Republicans have refused to act,” Shapiro said during his budget address Tuesday. Some booed in response.
As attorney general, Shapiro oversaw the release of a nearly 900-page grand jury report that detailed decades of child sexual abuse by Catholic Church clergy in Pennsylvania, and its cover-up by the church’s leaders.
Shapiro and his top prosecutors were widely credited for not bowing to the pressure from the church and the insurance industry, and fighting to make the report public.
But some members of the survivor community say Shapiro hasn’t done enough since becoming governor to get a window measure over the finish line.
“Here was a guy that made this such a pivotal issue, now in charge of the state,” Bill Wachob, a former Democratic state representative and survivor, told Spotlight PA. “You would think that the governor who exerted an enormous amount of leadership … when he shepherded [the investigation] through the grand jury process and issued the report, that he would be able to at least get the Senate to act on it.”
A top Republican in the state Senate recently said the caucus would not change its approach.
“There continues to be no valid justification for Democrats to prevent Pennsylvanians from having the opportunity to weigh in on both issues at the ballot box,” Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R., Indiana) said in a statement, referring to the constitutional amendment pairing abuse relief and expanded voter ID.
Read Shapiro’s remarks below.
“I held child abusers accountable as Pennsylvania’s attorney general, uncovering thousands of cases of abuse by hundreds of predator priests and a cover-up that extended all the way from Pennsylvania to the Vatican.
I put behind bars pediatricians and teachers and coaches who abused children, too.
And every year since then, I have urged you to open up a civil window to give survivors a chance at real accountability.
Leader [Matt] Bradford has put a clean bill on the House floor six different times over the last three years, and it has passed each time.
But I got to say it, I have to call it out — Senate Republicans have refused to act.
Stop cowering to the special interests, like insurance companies and lobbyists for the Catholic Church.
Stop tying justice for abused kids to your pet political projects.
Start listening to victims. Listen to the victims
It is shameful that this has gotten done in 30 other states who have followed our grand jury report’s lead, but it has failed to pass here in the commonwealth.
So pass statute of limitations reform this year — give survivors of sexual abuse the chance to confront their abusers in court.”
Spotlight PA’s Angela Couloumbis contributed.