On Tuesday, the House unanimously passed a sexual assault law seeking to protect rape kits and survivors’ right to them.
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According to Motto, while the legislation deals with other rights, it’s primarily concerned with guaranteed access to completed rape kits in federal criminal cases. Nguyen wants to help other survivors avoid the trauma she experiences every six months when she fights to extend the preservation of her own rape kit in MA, and must relive her sexual assault.
“The uneven patchwork of laws across the country and the lack of substantive rights for sexual assault survivors prevent them from having full access to the justice system”, Walters said on the House floor.
The bill is now off to the Senate for a vote there.
The bill was developed and advocated by Rise, a nonprofit that supports survivors of sexual assault and intimate partner violence.
Nguyen told the New York Times, “Two sexual assault survivors shouldn’t have two completely different sets of rights, just because they are in two different states”.
Nguyen, according to a People profile, hasn’t officially pressed charges for the 2013 rape because she works outside of MA and says she doesn’t have the time or resources right now for a trial lasting months or even years.
California representatives Mimi Walters and Zoe Lofgren introduced the bill to standardize the way sexual-assault cases are treated across the country. RISE is now working with state legislatures in California, Maryland, Massachusetts, and OR on similar bills that would cover sexual assaults prosecuted on the state level, as most are. Nguyen emphasized that in order to keep her rape kit from being destroyed, she had to call a forensic lab every six months-per state regulations.
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The bill must now be signed by President Barack Obama in order to become law. “Today’s vote to overwhelmingly pass the Survivors’ Bill of Rights Act means we are much closer to ensuring victims of sexual assault have meaningful access to justice”.
