(The Center Square) – Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro applauded the state’s recent budget deal for providing a 100% increase in funding for rape crisis centers during a ceremonial signing at the YWCA Young Women’s Association in Carlisle on Monday.
It was a change of tune from last year, when a budget impasse forced many centers to limit services and let go of employees. In the new deal, state funding for Pennsylvania’s 47 rape crisis centers increased by $12 million. While many Republicans questioned if the budget was genuinely ‘balanced,’ Shapiro maintained that the plan and its prioritization of survivors was a bipartisan effort.
“We stayed at the table, and we found ways to bring Democrats and Republicans together to tackle these big challenges, including doubling funding for our rape crisis centers across Pennsylvania,” Shapiro, a Democrat, said. “That’s the highest amount ever recorded in the history of our Commonwealth.”
Today, rape crisis centers serve 26,000 Pennsylvanians every year. Of that number, 6,000 are children. YWCA Board Member Andrea Greene recalled how when she was a child the response and resources for victims was especially lacking.
“As a child, I was never able to find my voice and ask for help until many years later.” Greene said.
For Greene, the new budget offers a way to rewrite the narrative that she and so many other vulnerable children experienced.
“It enables rape crisis centers across the commonwealth to educate young people to say no and to ask for help,” she said.
While giving a voice to survivors was a central theme of the signing, Shapiro also took the time to sternly critique those, he believed, failed to use the voices they had already been given.
“I’ve been very, very clear, over and over and over again, that the conduct of the Senate Republican leadership to cower in the face of opposition from the Catholic Church and the insurance lobby, is cowardice.” said Shapiro.
Although campaigning on a promise to provide justice for child sexual abuse victims, Shapiro has been unable to compel passage of legislation that would allow victims two years to bring their abusers to court.
Six bills have been successfully proposed and passed in the Democrat-controlled House, however, they have been shot down each time in the Senate. While Shapiro has received flack for the inaction on the issue in recent months, he claimed to the media that the fault is firmly in the other court.
“Shamefully, the Senate Republican Leadership has failed to act,” Shapiro said. “Instead, they stand up to protect the institutions that cover up the abuse and refuse to give survivors a day in court.”
Republican leadership has long believed that a constitutional amendment to give survivors a two-year litigation window would stand up to legal scrutiny, rather than get mired in years of legal battle.
An amendment nearly crossed the finish line to get on the primary election ballot in 2021, but was disqualified due to a clerical error made by the Department of State under then-Gov. Tom Wolf.
Serving as the attorney general during the grand jury investigation that unearthed the sex crimes of six Roman Catholic dioceses, Shapiro admitted that he listened to the financial needs of rape crisis groups with more attention than others.
“A lot of times folks say they need more,” Shapiro said. However, unlike public libraries who will continue to receive flat funding from the state this year, rape crisis groups and advocates are finally receiving the financial benefits of being higher on Shapiro’s priority list.
“The more I listened to them,” Shapiro said. “The more I realized that we needed more in this budget.”
While budgeting logistics currently keep the new investment stuck in Harrisburg, funds are expected to become available for distribution soon.
