LANSING, Mich. (WOOD) — Lawmakers and sexual abuse survivors on Monday rolled out a new package of 10 bills aimed at combating childhood sexual assault and protecting victims.
One of the biggest changes the “Protecting Michigan’s Children” bills would make is to extend the statue of limitations for reporting childhood sexual abuse. Currently, victims must report by their 19th birthday or within three years of the abuse in order for charges to be filed. Under the new legislation, that would be extended to 30 years after the act or 30 years after the age of majority.
The bills would also create higher penalties for possession of child pornography, allow the admission of evidence from previous cases in trials of serial abusers, strengthen the penalties for mandatory reporters who fail to do so, and give those who perpetrate and enable sexual abuse no claim to governmental immunity in civil litigation.
“This comprehensive legislative reform … opens up access to our justice system to many victims of sexual assault whose voices have yet to be heard,” Kalamazoo native Rachael DenHollander, who was the first to push for charges against convicted serial molester Larry Nassar, said at a Monday press conference at the Capitol in Lansing
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